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This small, silver-gilt triptych with angels engraved on the side panels contains a valuable reliquary-encolpion. The figure of Saint Catherine is carved in deep relief on agate stone, encircled in a gold border with white enamel, translucent and opaque colored enamels, precious stones, and a string of pearls. The attachment point of the suspension chain to the small-sized cameo was decorated with the scene of the Holy Mandylion, as was customary in Russian encolpia. The back-side is decorated with floral motifs in low relief, painted over with enamel. The particular techniques employed and the delicate features indicate that this lavish item was produced, together with other well-known artifacts of the second half of the seventeenth century, by the Kremlin workshops in Moscow for the royal court of the Tsar.


Αgate cameo (sixteenth century) Mountings in engraved silver gilt, gold, enamels, precious stones and pearls (second half of seventeenth century)
Sixteenth-seventeenth century
Triptych height: 13.9 cm Encolpion height: 10.5 cm
Moscow workshop

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