COLLECTIONS / Minor Arts
The Museum's Minor Arts Collection contains ca. 6,000 objects. They are mainly ecclesiastical artefacts, but there are also secular ones, made by a variety of materials and with diverse techniques, dating from the 4th to the 19th century.
There are about 1,000 coins in the Minor Arts Collection, issued by the emperors of Constantinople from the 4th to the 14th c. The artefacts from the Early Christian period (4th-7th c.) are mainly clay lamps and seals, and small flasks for holy oil (ampullae). From the mid- and late Byzantine period comes a number of brass pectoral cross-reliquaries, that is amulets containing part of the True Cross or other relics, as well as the lead seals of imperial and ecclesiastical officials.
There are more objects from the Post-Byzantine period than from the earlier years, mainly ecclesiastical. The heirlooms from the Greek communities of Asia Minor and the now-lost communities of the Hellenic Diaspora are of special artistic importance. A significant and large group of objects is the one that includes carved wooden crosses with metal revetment.
-
Lamp
Clay hanging lamp in the form of a fish. From its mouth emerges the head of another, smaller, upturned fish, which provides t...
-
Hanging lamp in the form of a fish
Clay hanging lamp in the form of a fish. From its mouth emerges the head of another, smaller, upturned fish, which provides t...
-
Lamp decorated with fishes
Clay lamp decorated with two fishes on a hook. It bears the stamp of the Attic workshop of Ruphus.
-
Clay lamp
Clay lamp, of the African type, decorated with a cross and plant motifs.
-
Metal lamp with lamp-stand
Lamp, copper alloy. It has an almond-shape body with a strongly projecting nozzle, bell-shaped lid and a horse-shaped handle....
-
Golden earrings (enotia)
Each earring consists of a perforated six-fold rosette with a ruby in the centre. On the lower edge of the rosettes are hangi...
-
Golden earrings (enotia)
Golden elaborated earrings
-
Μyrrh container / perfume flask
Golden perfume of myrrh container /flask for the storage of perfume or cosmetic substances. It was found in a tomb in Tigani ...
-
Silver spoon
Silver spoon with long, thin stem, which was used to remove small quantities of substances e.g. cosmetics or perfumes from sm...
-
Silver spoon
Silver spoon with long, thin stem, which was used to remove small quantities of substances e.g. cosmetics or perfumes from sm...
-
Processional cross
Copper processional cross, 6th c.
-
Copper alloy hoop (polykandelon) with insiced inscription
Copper alloy hoop (polykandelon)
The bronze hoop has twelve holes in its circumference in which a similar number of glass lamps were placed. On its upper surf...
-
Solidus (gold coin) issued by the Emperor Justinian I
Solidus (gold coin) of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I (527-565)
-
Solidus (gold coin) issued by the Emperor Basil I and his son Constantine
Solidus (gold coin) issued by the Emperor Basil I (867-886) and his son Constantine
-
Solidus (gold coin) issued by the Emperor Leon VI and his son Constantine VII
Solidus (gold coin) issued by the Emperor Leon VI (886-912) and his son Constantine VII
-
Histamenon (gold coin) issued by the Emperor Basil II
Histamenon (gold coin) issued by the Emperor Basil II (976-1025)
-
Hyperpyron (gold coin) issued by the Emperor Alexios I Komnenos
Hyperpyron (gold coin) issued by the Emperor Alexios I Komnenos (1081-1118)
-
Hyperpyron (gold coin) issued by the Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos
Hyperpyron (gold coin) issued by the Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos (1258-1282)
-
Imperial weight
Imperial standard weight of bronze inlaid with silver, with a representation of the emperors Justin I and Justinian I.
-
Wedding (?) Crowns
The crowns are made of tin-plated bronze. They have semicircular elevations, adorned with a cross. Each of them has an inscri...
-
Metal panoply of a horseman
Metal panoply of a horseman
Metal panoply of a horseman
The panoply (armour)consists of a bronze helmet and an iron chainmail cuirass. The two pieces of the panoply are not part of ...
-
Gold chain
The chain consists of 60 circular rings, linked by two smaller rings connected together in the shape of a figure-of-eight. A ...
-
Gold Buckle
The buckle belongs to an ensemble of coins and valuable objects, the Mytilene Treasure, discovered accidentally in 1951 durin...
-
Gold bracelet
Golden bracelet from the Kratigos of Mytilene Treasure. The double monogram could probably be rendered as Cyril, son of Georg...
Comments
Users must be registered and logged in to comment.
No comments found.