Skip to Content

Anonymous (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of the Virgin holding Christ on her left arm and gesturing towards him with her right; Christ holds a closed scroll in his left hand and offers a blessing with his right. Sigla: ̅Θ̅Υ : Μ(ήτη)ρ Θ(εο)ῦ. Border of dots.

Reverse

Faint traces of an illegible inscription. Border of dots.

Obverse

Bust of the Virgin holding Christ on her left arm and gesturing towards him with her right; Christ holds a closed scroll in his left hand and offers a blessing with his right. Sigla: ̅Θ̅Υ : Μ(ήτη)ρ Θ(εο)ῦ. Border of dots.

Reverse

Faint traces of an illegible inscription. Border of dots.

Accession number BZS.1977.34.17
Diameter 27.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 7, no. 8.4.

Commentary

Above and below the left-hand sigla on the obverse is a large dot. A similar decorative device is found on another eleventh-century seal accompanying an image of the Virgin but there a dot appears below each of the flanking Marian sigla while above the sigla are the “Tongues of Fire” (Jordanov, Bulgaria 1, no. 9.1 [listed again in his Bulgaria 3, no. 1652]). For a discussion of the device of the “Tongues of Fire” on seals with Marian images, see DO Seals 7, no. 4.5.

Bibliography

  • Catalogue of Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and in the Fogg Museum of Art, Volume 7: The Iconographic Seals (Open in Zotero)