Armilla with the Resurrection of Christ
Nicholas of Verdun (c. 1130-c. 1205) · c. 1170-1180
Curved like a shallow shell, the small enamelled plaque is an armilla, a ceremonial bracelet worn on the upper arm as part of imperial regalia; six holes around the edge fixed it to a sleeve. Inside a border of trefoil motifs, Christ rises from his sarcophagus, pushing aside the shroud and leaning on a long-staffed cross, his head ringed by a halo. Two guards sleep at the foot of the tomb, two angels frame the scene, and the inscription reads Resurrection of the Lord. The work is attributed to Nicholas of Verdun, the greatest goldsmith of the Meuse valley; note the blend of champlevé and cloisonné enamel and the fluid, almost classical fall of the drapery.
The armilla is thought to come from the tomb of Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky, grand duke of Vladimir and Suzdal in Russia, who died in eleven seventy four and would have received the pair as a gift from Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. Its twin, with the Crucifixion, is in Nuremberg. Recorded at Vladimir from the seventeenth century, it was sold abroad by the Soviet state in nineteen thirty three and given to the Louvre by the Société des Amis du Louvre in nineteen thirty four.
Did You Know? A bracelet made in the Meuse valley for a German emperor ended up in the tomb of a Russian prince before travelling back west to Paris.
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