Belt Buckle and Tongue

Place of Originprobably Milan, Italy

Dateabout 1450-1500

Dimensions5 1/2 × 1 3/8 × 1/4 in.
5 3/4 × 1 × 1/4 in.
3 1/8 in.

Mediumsilver, partially gilt, niello

ClassificationMetalwork

Credit LinePurchased in honor of Julie Taylor

Object number

2022.29A-B

Not on View

DescriptionBelt buckle and tongue with suspended chain and miniature gem-set ring. Made of silver with gilding and niello imagery. Each piece is rectangular in form with foliate terminals and bordered by twisted wire, and engraved and punched patterning. Oriented horizontally, the buckle displays three niello plaques: clasped right hands, a flower, and a winged putti head. The buckle's reverse is stamped with a watermill mark. The belt tongue is oriented vertically and displays profile portraits of a man and two women on one side and one man and one woman on the other side.

Exhibition HistoryErik Bijzet Sculpture and Works of Art, Icon Gallery, Amsterdam, Early Italian Art (1100-1500), June 4-13, 2021.Comparative ReferencesSee also Fingerlin, Ilse, Gürtel des hohen und späten Mittelalters, Munich, 1971, pp. 376-378, 417-419, 431-432, and 465-468, nos. 170-177, 354-355, 384, and 530.

See also Venturelli, Paola, Gioielli e gioiellieri milanesi. Storia, arte, moda (1450-1630), Milan, 1996, pp. 183-190.

See also L. Syson and D. Thornton, Objects of virtue. Art in Renaissance Italy, London, 2001, pp. 53-56.

See also Bayer, Andrea ed, Art and Love in Renaissance Italy, exh. cat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 2008, pp. 104-106.

See also Venturelli Paola ed., Oro dai Visconti agli Sforza. Smalti e oreficeria nel Ducato di Milano, exh. cat. Museo Diocesano, Milan, 2011, pp. 188-191, nos. 35-36.