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Photo Credit: © Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, D.C.

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Plate with Phaedra and Hippolytos


Early Byzantine
6th century
25.1 cm x 25.1 cm (9 7/8 in. x 9 7/8 in.)
silver
BZ.1949.6

Not on view


Permalink: http://museum.doaks.org/objects-1/info/36038

Additional Images
Additional Image Detail of center: Hippolytos and Hippolyta
Detail of center: Hippolytos and Hippolyta
Additional Image Group view with BZ.1949.7
Group view with BZ.1949.7

Description
In the center of the plate is an engraved repoussé medallion, surrounded by a broad border of acanthus leaves, and plain bands of turning around the medallion and on the rim. The two figures in the middle are draped in Phrygian costumes, to the left is represented a young man and to the right an Amazon, each leaning cross-legged on a staff with a shield alongside.


Bibliography
Handbook of the Dumbarton Oaks Collection, Harvard University (Washington, DC, 1955), no. 127.

K. Weitzmann, "The Survival of Mythological Representations in Early Christian and Byzantine Art and their Impact on Christian Iconography," Dumbarton Oaks Papers 14 (1960): 53-55.

M. Ross, Catalogue of the Byzantine and Early Mediaeval Antiquities in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection, Vol. I, Metalwork, Ceramics, Glass, Glyptics, Painting (Washington, DC, 1962), 7-9, no. 7, Pl. VIII and IX.

Handbook of the Dumbarton Oaks Collection, Harvard University (Washington, DC, 1967), no. 58.

Age of Spirituality: Late Antique and Early Christian Art, Third to Seventh Century, ed. K. Weitzmann, exh. cat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, 1979), no. 217.

J.M.C. Toynbee and K.S. Painter, "Silver Picture Plates of Late Antiquity: A.D.300 to 700," Archaeologia 108 (1986): 15-65, no. 34


Exhibition History
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, "Age of Spirituality: Late Antique and Early Christian Art, Third to Seventh Century," Nov. 1977 - Feb. 1978.

Washington, DC, the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, “Ancient and Medieval Metalwork from Dumbarton Oaks,” Dec. 16, 2005 – Apr. 1, 2007.

Dumbarton Oaks, "The Collector's Microbe: Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss and the Dumbarton Oaks Collections," Apr. 9 - Nov. 9, 2008.

Washington, DC, Dumbarton Oaks, Rich in Blessings: Wealth and the Late Antique Household, November 17, 2023 - June 9, 2024.



Acquisition History
Findspot uknown.

Purchased from the dealer Charles Ratton (1895-1986), by Mildred Barnes and Robert Woods Bliss, December 1947;

Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Byzantine Collection, Washington, DC


Object Last Modified: 8/15/2024