The Shadow of Byzantium in Lombard Jewellery Production

Manufacturing and use of jewellery for personal adornment was typical of the German people who attributed a primary role to precious objects to highlight their social status. This habit emerges in a relevant way studing the grave materials of Castel Trosino and Nocera Umbra – two Early Medieval cemeteries – where the ranks of the tombs are clearly evidenced, as well as the difference in the quality of the jewels produced of German and Byzantine tastes which evolved in parallel without damaging each other. Even though the refined manufacture and the precious materials evident in the Byzantine objects would appeal to the Lombard people, it is also true that imitating the “fashion of Constantinople” was accompanied by a clear allusion of the wealth and power of the Byzantine court. It is of little importance that the sophistication of the artifacts in the Byzantine style found in the cemeteries of Castel Trosino and Nocera Umbra were not up to the level of the production of the workshops in Constantinople, what constituted a relevant factor was the call to a clear model belonging to a well-formal stylistic language easily decoded and equipped with its own symbology.