REDISCOVERY /AUTHENTIFICATION
OF A UNIQUE ITEM (2008-2015)
In-depth expertise / Restoration direction / Advisory / Research work / Heritage rehabilitation
OF A UNIQUE ITEM (2008-2015)
In-depth expertise / Restoration direction / Advisory / Research work / Heritage rehabilitation
"A serpent coils around its contours ; its tooth silently gnaws; an eternal azure adorns its scales ; it devours its tail curled toward its head, and with a circular motion, spins eternelly upon itself."
Claudian, 5th century
Claudian, 5th century
DIAM. at the rim : 18,6 CM ; TOTAL HEIGHT 8 CM
(COVER MISSING)
SOLID SILVER ALLOY, VERY HIGH PURITY
[253 g ; 7 1/4 in, 8oz 27dwt]
(COVER MISSING)
SOLID SILVER ALLOY, VERY HIGH PURITY
[253 g ; 7 1/4 in, 8oz 27dwt]
"[...] For those who linger over wine,
for those who seek potent drinks
Do not look at wine which glows red,
which gives all its colour in the cup
and wich glides easily
In the end it bites like a serpent
it stings like a viper"
[Proverbs, 23.32]
for those who seek potent drinks
Do not look at wine which glows red,
which gives all its colour in the cup
and wich glides easily
In the end it bites like a serpent
it stings like a viper"
[Proverbs, 23.32]
[Excerpts from the Expert Report - 2015 version- by Dr Laure Chevalier (53 pages)]
"A unique witness, this piece of 12th-century goldsmithing contained all the difficulties of a hapax deprived of its discovery context. The rarity of this 'Cup with Dragon Ouroboros', established via its presentation to the National Treasures Commission in 2010, led me to engage several scientifiic fields to overcome the documentary scarcity.
On the technical and stylistic level, the 'Cup with Dragon Ouroboros' borrows from various influences, mainly Eastern. The investigation allowed the identification of other representations of fantastic animals, coiled on themselves and forming a circle.
The dragon Ouroboros which adorns the cup is similar to the decorative motif carved on the Bayeux Cathedral, which long gave rise to a "flood of explanatory hypothses ("débauche d'hypothèses explicative")," to borrow the phrase of Lucien Musset.
The Bayeux Cathedral motif not being isolated, the question of its origin may be posed thus: the identification of the dragon ouroboros on the Bayeux Tapestry - scene 43, above the banquet scene - and on other Norman productions invites reflection on the role of Norman iconographers in the integration of motifs borrowed from older and/or Eastern societies (ancient Greece, Sassanid Iran, Coptic Egypt).
Investigations also revealed the great erudition of Norman ecclesiastics (early knowledge of Greek and the ancient sources of Aristotelian culture and interest in scholastic philosophy). But more than its genesis or its introduction in Normandy, the significance of the motif is at stake.
The investigation shows that this is a representation of the Ouroboros; the parallels drawn with other examples, their confrontation with representations of the Ouroboros in later alchemical texts, and the proven existence of another occurence of the fabulous animal in the 11th century, in the scriptorium of the Abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel, remove any ambiguity regarding this interpretation.
The investigations definitively anchor the object in a area corresponding to the Plantagenêt sphere of the second half of the 12th century, a territory subject to shared cultural and artistic influences, favoured by the itinerant royal court.
The investigations show that the close correspondence between the ornemental repertoire of the 'Cup with Dragon OUroboros' and that which appears on a document of ancient (Greek) chemistry, the Chrysopoiea of Cleopatra, is not fortuitous: an illustration sheet of the Chrysopoeia of Cleopatra (reproduced in the Manuscript of Saint Mark, fol. 188 v., 11th century) juxtaposes the familiar cryptograms: moon; three concentric circles in a composition centred on signs [circles symbols of gold, of silver (witha small appendage) and of mercury]; signs close to the carbuncle with eight rays; an Ouroboros attached to the Greek inscription "en to pan".
Known to the Norman masters, alchemical knowledge seems to have been idsseminated secretly as evidence by the use of the process of cupellation: in his treatise "On the Various Arts adressed to Benedictine monks, the monk Theophilus (abbot) is the first to describe the principle of cupellation in goldsmithing.
In this respect, the excellent silver content of this 'Cup with Dragon Ouroboros' confirms that the caster knew how to control the silver fineness to within a few thousandths by the method of cupellation."
Dr Laure Chevalier (PhD) - 2015
AGALMATA EXPERTISE
"A unique witness, this piece of 12th-century goldsmithing contained all the difficulties of a hapax deprived of its discovery context. The rarity of this 'Cup with Dragon Ouroboros', established via its presentation to the National Treasures Commission in 2010, led me to engage several scientifiic fields to overcome the documentary scarcity.
On the technical and stylistic level, the 'Cup with Dragon Ouroboros' borrows from various influences, mainly Eastern. The investigation allowed the identification of other representations of fantastic animals, coiled on themselves and forming a circle.
The dragon Ouroboros which adorns the cup is similar to the decorative motif carved on the Bayeux Cathedral, which long gave rise to a "flood of explanatory hypothses ("débauche d'hypothèses explicative")," to borrow the phrase of Lucien Musset.
The Bayeux Cathedral motif not being isolated, the question of its origin may be posed thus: the identification of the dragon ouroboros on the Bayeux Tapestry - scene 43, above the banquet scene - and on other Norman productions invites reflection on the role of Norman iconographers in the integration of motifs borrowed from older and/or Eastern societies (ancient Greece, Sassanid Iran, Coptic Egypt).
Investigations also revealed the great erudition of Norman ecclesiastics (early knowledge of Greek and the ancient sources of Aristotelian culture and interest in scholastic philosophy). But more than its genesis or its introduction in Normandy, the significance of the motif is at stake.
The investigation shows that this is a representation of the Ouroboros; the parallels drawn with other examples, their confrontation with representations of the Ouroboros in later alchemical texts, and the proven existence of another occurence of the fabulous animal in the 11th century, in the scriptorium of the Abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel, remove any ambiguity regarding this interpretation.
The investigations definitively anchor the object in a area corresponding to the Plantagenêt sphere of the second half of the 12th century, a territory subject to shared cultural and artistic influences, favoured by the itinerant royal court.
The investigations show that the close correspondence between the ornemental repertoire of the 'Cup with Dragon OUroboros' and that which appears on a document of ancient (Greek) chemistry, the Chrysopoiea of Cleopatra, is not fortuitous: an illustration sheet of the Chrysopoeia of Cleopatra (reproduced in the Manuscript of Saint Mark, fol. 188 v., 11th century) juxtaposes the familiar cryptograms: moon; three concentric circles in a composition centred on signs [circles symbols of gold, of silver (witha small appendage) and of mercury]; signs close to the carbuncle with eight rays; an Ouroboros attached to the Greek inscription "en to pan".
Known to the Norman masters, alchemical knowledge seems to have been idsseminated secretly as evidence by the use of the process of cupellation: in his treatise "On the Various Arts adressed to Benedictine monks, the monk Theophilus (abbot) is the first to describe the principle of cupellation in goldsmithing.
In this respect, the excellent silver content of this 'Cup with Dragon Ouroboros' confirms that the caster knew how to control the silver fineness to within a few thousandths by the method of cupellation."
Dr Laure Chevalier (PhD) - 2015
AGALMATA EXPERTISE
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