Spherical Pendant or Button

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This handsomely worked, hollow sphere may have decorated the border of an official scarf, like the loros worn by the Byzantine emperor, or have been used as a button to hold together the outermost vestments of members of the Orthodox clergy. Similar works have been found at Preslav, the capital of the Bulgarian empire in the early tenth century.

Medieval Art and The Cloisters

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Museum's collection of medieval and Byzantine art is among the most comprehensive in the world. Displayed in both The Met Fifth Avenue and in the Museum's branch in northern Manhattan, The Met Cloisters, the collection encompasses the art of the Mediterranean and Europe from the fall of Rome in the fourth century to the beginning of the Renaissance in the early sixteenth century. It also includes pre-medieval European works of art created during the Bronze Age and early Iron Age.

Metropolitan Museum of Art