Enormous Marble Early Byzantine Liturgical Table

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Exceptional Antiquities, Asian, Ethnographic

By Artemis Gallery

Feb 21, 2019

Set Reminder 2019-02-21 10:00:00 2019-02-21 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Exceptional Antiquities, Asian, Ethnographic https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/artemis-gallery/exceptional-antiquities-asian-ethnographic-3858
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• Lot Description
  Early Byzantine, ca. 400 to 600 CE. Finely carved from a single piece of creamy white marble, a large Byzantine horseshoe-shaped liturgical table, created for celebratory feasts for the dead at gravesites during the early Byzantine era. There are ten carved lobed compartments around the curved top, a rectangular receptacle at the lower end, and bordering the bottom is a beautiful relief depicting six sheep flanking a chi-rho symbol. The sheep represent the blessed according to Matthew 25:33-40. The chi-rho symbol is the monogram for Christ derived from the first two letters of his name in Greek. Some have dubbed tables of this shape "sigma tables" given their resemblance to the Greek letter. Such tables were traditionally supported by bases that were extensively carved with inscriptions telling of humankind's promised salvation. Size: 37.375" W x 40.625" H (94.9 cm x 103.2 cm)
  
  Marble tabletops have been found widely throughout the Roman and Byzantine Empires; however, the vast majority exist as only small fragments and very few have carved reliefs like this example. The tables were created in various shapes such as rectangular and circular; however, this horseshoe variety with carved lobe-shaped receptacles stands out as more unusual and distinct. In addition, marble tabletops with Christian decoration are less common than tables adorned with pagan mythological scenes such as Dionysiac processions.
  
  See a comparable example at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Accession Number 47.100.50) on view in Gallery 300 - https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/47.100.50/
  
  For further reading: Weitzmann, Kurt, ed. "Age of Spirituality: Late Antique and Early Christian Art, Third to Seventh Century" Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1979.
  
  Provenance: private East Coast, USA collection; ex-Janet and George Zakos collection, Switzerland, acquired in the 1980s
  
  All items legal to buy/sell under U.S. Statute covering cultural patrimony Code 2600, CHAPTER 14, and are guaranteed to be as described or your money back.
  
  A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids.
  
  We ship worldwide and handle all shipping in-house for your convenience.
  
  #143953

  Condition

  Repaired from approximately three large pieces. Stabilization to break lines is visible on the verso. Chips to peripheries and high-pointed areas and expected surface wear commensurate with age. This said the six sheep and chi-rho symbol at the lower end as well as the incised curvilinear outlines of the lobe-shaped and rectancular receptacles and the inner table surface are still vivid.
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