Veroli box
The Veroli box is a Byzantine wooden box richly decorated with ivory and leg rests. It is 40.5 × 16 × 11.2 cm in size and probably dates to the middle of the 10th century. When manufacture is Konstantin Opel accepted. The Veroli box is one of the most important works of Byzantine ivory art .
The box shows fields on the outside that reproduce sequences of images from Greek mythology and are kept in a classic, ancient style. Among other things are shown: on the front left Bellerophon with Pegasus and on the right the victim of Iphigenia , on the lid the robbery of Europe , on the narrow sides Dionysian motifs. Other figures depicted are Asclepios , Hygieia and Heracles . The ivory works stand out due to their high technical skill. Numerous figures are undercut and therefore appear almost fully plastic. The picture panels are framed by rosette ribbons, the quality of which is significantly lower than that of the figurative scenes.
The original function of the box is unknown. It could have been a wedding present or perhaps a container for precious perfumes.
The box was kept in Veroli Cathedral until 1861, and in 1865 it was acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (inventory no. 216-1865).
literature
- John Beckwith: The Veroli Casket, (Victoria and Albert Museum. Museum Monograph No. 18), London 1962
- Erika Simon : Nonnos and the ivory box from Veroli. In: Yearbook of the German Archaeological Institute 79, 1964, pp. 279–336
- Paul Williamson: Medieval Ivory Carvings. Early Christian to Romanesque. V&A Publishing, London 2010, pp. 76-83 No. 15