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II.—The Crystal of Lothair
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 November 2011
Extract
The famous jewel known as the Crystal of Lothair, now in the British Museum, was preserved from the first half of the tenth century down to the French Revolution in the Abbey of Waulsort or Vasor, on the Meuse, seven kilomètres from Dinant. Its truly remarkable history has already been briefly related for English readers by Mr. W. H. James Weale, while its importance to art and archæology is discussed in French and Belgian publications by M. Ernest Babelon, of the Cabinet des Médailles, Paris, and by M. Alfred Bequet of Namur. But it has never been described in English at any length, nor has it been hitherto reproduced by a photographic process on a scale worthy of its exceptional interest. The late Sir A. Wollaston Franks, P.S.A., went so far as to have a negative taken, and intended to publish it in Archaeologia a good many years ago; but unfortunately the pressure of other work prevented him from carrying out his purpose. It is from this negative that the photogravure illustrating the present paper (Plate I.) has been produced.
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- Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1904
References
page 25 note a Magazine of Art, December, 1900. Mr. Weale had at an earlier date drawn attention to the identity of the crystal with the jewel described in the Chronicle of Waulsort.
page 25 note b Babelon, E., La gravure sur gemmes en France (Paris, 1902), pp. 24 ffGoogle Scholar; La gravure en pierres fines, p. 231; Compte rendu des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, 1895, p. 410. Bequet, A., Annales de la Société Archéologique de Namur, xviii. (1889)Google Scholar. Earlier references are: Labarte, J., Histoire des arts industriels, i. 199 ffGoogle Scholar; Darcel, A., Gazette des Beaux Arts, xix. (1865), 130Google Scholar; Charles de Linas, Orfevrerie Mérovingienne, 48.
page 26 note a Libera, Domine, animam ejus, sicut liberasti Susannam de falso crimine.
page 26 note b Le Blant, E., Étude sur les sarcophages chrétiens antiques de la ville d'Arles (Paris, 1878), pl. viiiGoogle Scholar. The story of Susanna is also found on the famous carved ivory reliquary of the fourth century at Brescia (Garrucci, , Storia dell' arte Cristiana, vi. pl. 441–445Google Scholar; photographs, H. Graeven, Frühchristliche und mittelalterliche Elfenbeinwerke, part ii. nos. 11–15.
page 28 note a E.g. on a panel in the Bargello at Florence (Graeven, Frühchristliche und mittelalterliche Elfenbeinwerke, part ii. no. 29).
page 28 note b Molinier, E., Ivoires, pl. v.Google Scholar
page 28 note c A similar canopy occurs in the Bible of the Monastery of St. Paul near Rome; see post.
page 28 note d Reproduced by Louandre, C., Les Arts Somptuaires, i.Google Scholar
page 28 note e Especially the ivory panels upon the great book-covers in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, panels in the British Museum (Graeven, as above, part i. nos. 36, 37), at South Kensington (Graeven, nos. 59, 68), and Florence (Graeven, part ii. no. 29).
page 29 note a Among recent contributions to this subject may be mentioned the essays of Dr.Haseloff, A., Sauerland, and Haseloff, , Der Psalter Erzbischof Egberts zu Trier, and Jahrbuch der Königlich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen, xxiv. (1903), 47 ff.Google Scholar; the valuable articles in the Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft (Berlin—Stuttgart), by Dr.Vöge, W. (xxii. (1899), 95 ff.Google Scholar, 446 ff., xxiv. 195 ff, xxv. 119 ff.); and Professor A. Goldschmidt (xxii. 44 ff., and xxiii. 265 ff.).
page 29 note b Graeven, H., Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft, xxi. (1898), 28 ffGoogle Scholar.
page 30 note a Cf. especially the casket in the Museo Kircheriano at Rome. Schlumberger, G., Monuments et Mémoires publicés par l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres (Fondation Eugène Piot), Paris, 1900Google Scholar. pl. xviii. For the Byzantine psalters see Kondakoff, N., Histoire de l'art Byzantin considéré principalement dans les miniatures (Paris, 1886)Google Scholar; and Tikkanen, J. J., Die Psalterillustration im Mittelalter, i. (Helsingfors, 1895)Google Scholar.
page 30 note b See Bréhier, L. in Byzantinische Zeitschrift, 1903, pp. 1Google Scholar ff., where references to the recent work on the relations between Europe and the East in the early Middle Ages will be found
page 30 note c E.g. Babelon, 42.
page 31 note a See Janitschek, H. in Menzel's, K.Die Trierer Ada-Handschrift (Cologne, 1884)Google Scholar, and other articles by Janitschek and Leitschuh. In addition to these the more recent books and articles by W. Vöge, A. Haseloff, G. Swarzenski, and A. Goldschmidt should be consulted.
page 31 note b Durrieu, P., L'origine du MS. Célèbre dit le Psautier d'Utrecht (Paris, 1895)Google Scholar; Goldschmidt, A. in Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft (1892), 156Google Scholar; R. Stettiner, ibid. (1895), 199.
page 32 note a Westwood, J. O., The Bible of the Monastery of St. Paul near Borne (Oxford, 1876)Google Scholar, with photographs by Parker, photograph 3093. Cf. also other figures resembling those upon the crystal in photographs 2718, 3100, 3104; a canopy like that seen in the central medallion of the crystal occurs in photograph 3300. Professor Kondakoff (as above, ii. 39) notes the resemblance between this book and a Greek MS. with fragments from the Bible in the Vatican Library (Fonds de la reine Christine, no. 1). The fact has its bearing on the general question of the relations between Western and Eastern art referred to above.
page 32 note b Swarzenski, G., Die Karolingische Malerei und Plastik in Rheims; Jahrbuch der Königlich preussischen Kunstsammlungen, 1902, p. 91Google Scholar.
page 32 note c Ibid. 92.
page 32 note d For the activity of Rheims see also Professor Goldschmit, A., Repertorium, für Kunstwissenschaft, xv. (1892), 166Google Scholar.
page 32 note e On these unsettling influences which affected the medieval minor arts, see Humann, G. in Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft, xxv. (1902), 9Google Scholar ff.
page 33 note a Both these examples are well reproduced by Babelon, La Gravure sur gemmes en Francs, plate iii. M. Babelon figures all the Carlovingian crystal intaglios, and the student of early medieval gem-engraving should consult his book.
page 33 note b Babelon, 44, fig. 20.
page 33 note c Ibid. pl. iv.
page 34 note a Babelon, 37.
page 34 note b Ibid. 39.
page 34 note c Humann, as above, 14.
page 34 note d S. Lane-Poole, The Art of the Saracens in Egypt, 194. For the Byzantine and Saracenic crystal vessels in the treasury of St. Mark at Venice, see Pasini, Il tesoro di San Marco; E. Molinier, Le trésor de S. Marc; and E. Babelon, as above, pp. 54 ff.
page 34 note e Babelon, 70. On medieval beliefs as to the magical properties of gems, see de Mély, F., Du rôle des pierres gravées au Moyen Áge (Lille, 1893)Google Scholar, and Revue de l'art Chrétien, 1893.
page 34 note f In the Cabinet des Médailles, see Babelon, Catalogue des Camées, No. 379.
page 35 note a A small sphere of crystal or glass mounted for suspension in very much the same style as the Early Teutonic examples was found in a Græco-Scythian grave dating from the fourth-third century b.c. Cf. Compte rendu de la Commission Impériale archéologique, year 1876 (St. Petersburg, 1879)Google Scholar, atlas, plate ii. fig. 9.
page 35 note b d'Achery, L., Spicilegium sive collectio veterum aliquot scriptorum, etc. 2nd edition (Paris, 1723), ii. 709 ffGoogle Scholar: Chronicon Valciodorense. The Chronicle deals with the years between 944 and 1242.
page 36 note a Sine consilio suæ nobilissimæ conjugis, quæ formidabat casum qui accidit, loco obsidis mirabilem thesaurum quem apud se ipsum conservabat clerico tribuit, diem statuens in quo fieret solutio debiti. P. 710.
page 36 note b Thesaurus autem iste desiderabilis compositus est in similitudinem insignis monilis quem Sanctus Eligius. venerabilis episcopus, honestate et in omni operationis artificio egregius, praecepto nutuque incliti Lotharii Regis Francorum manibus propriis operatus est. Lapis siquidem berillus in medio positus sculptum retinet, qualiter in Daniele Susanna senibus judicibus male criminata sit, qui varietate sui operis diligentiam ostendit artis, et diligentia venustatem locupletis honoris. Ibid.
page 36 note c Dignitate siquidem thesauri denudatus, convicioque controversyæ et perversæ operationis graviter vexatus.
page 37 note a Exponens illis supradicti inorcimonii conventum et sui venditoris execrabilis macbinationis periculum, et atrocis frandis miserabile ludibrium.
page 37 note b Et sic flammis urentibus ab ejusdem templi mœnibus ille fraudis commentator ejicitur, et dolus, qui antea versabatur clausus in ejus pectore, evidentibus indicüs in propatuio manifustatur. Nam thesaurus, quem dolosæ machinationis inventione furtive deliberaverat retinere, ab eo aufertur, et cmu detrimento Urbis et Ecclesiæ restituitur.
page 38 note a Et tliesaurum superius memoratum, qui seditionis et controversial quondam causa fuit, et pro quo multa aceiderant dedit eidem ecclesue, et inter alia ornamenta ipsuni in eâ præcipmim et excellentiorem præcepit in perpetuum per succedentia tempora non segniter custodiri.
page 38 note b Bequet, as above, 6.
page 38 note c Ibid.
page 38 note d Hierogazopliylacium Belgicum, sive thesaurus sacrarum reliquiarum, auctore Arnoldo Raissio Belgâ-Duaceno, ibidemque apud ædem Sancti Petri Canonico, anno 1628.
page 38 note e Voyage littéraire de deux Bénédictins, 1764, ii. 132Google Scholar.
page 38 note f Darcell, A., Gazette des Beaux Arts, xix. (1860) 130Google Scholar. A. Bequet, as above, 2.