Belt Buckle

The Cleveland Museum of Art catalogs Belt Buckle as jewelry (Visigothic, Spain, Migration Period, 6th century · c. 525–560).

WHY IT’S INTERESTING

The art of the European Migration Period (3rd-7th centuries AD) is almost exclusively one of personal adornment-a portable art that followed men and women to their graves. Belt buckles with large rectangular attachment plates have been discovered in cemeteries across the Iberian Peninsula-now occupied by Spain and Port

SERENDIPITYA little unexpected

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A CLOSER LOOK

The museum identifies this jewelry as bronze with garnets, glass, mother of pearl, gold foil, traces of gilding; bronze and glass.

The museum's collection notes: The art of the European Migration Period (3rd-7th centuries AD) is almost exclusively one of personal adornment-a portable art that followed men and women to their graves. Belt buckles with large rectangular attachment plates have been discovered in cemeteries across the Iberian Peninsula-now occupied by Spain and Portugal-from the period of Visigothic occupation (about AD 412-711). Their decoration varies. Finer examples, like this one, are distinguished by brilliantly inlaid semi-precious stones and colored glass. Garnets were especially prized in Visigothic society for use in cloisonné jewelry. The technique involved the fitting of careful

FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE

The Cleveland Museum of ArtBelt Buckle

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