Cleveland Museum of Art

Button

Date

500s

Medium

rock crystal with a garnet mounted in a gold granulated star

Culture

Byzantium, early Byzantine period, 6th century

Department

Medieval Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

The decorative technique known as granulation had been used in Etruscan, Greek, and Roman jewelry well before this Byzantine piece was made. Granulation is when tiny spheres or “granules” are attached to a piece. It can be seen here in in a rock crystal button decorated with a six-pointed star, with a simply set garnet in the center.

The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.