David and Goliath

628-630
Silver plate
Constantinople

Information provided by the Metropolitan Museum, New York:

Dish: David and Goliath, 628—630; Early Byzantine
Byzantine; Made in Constantinople
Silver; D. 1 1/2 in. (3.8 cm); Diam. 19 1/2 in. (49.4 cm)
Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917 (17.190.396)

This beautiful and exceptionally important plate belongs to a set of nine, three of which are in the Cyprus Museum in Nicosia. The group was discovered in 1902 in Karavas (Northern Cyprus) sealed with a horde of jewelry and gold, much of which is also now in the Museum's collection, a gift of J. Pierpont Morgan in 1917.

Originally the small and the medium-sized plates were arranged around the largest, which shows David's combat with Goliath. On the backs are the control stamps of the Emperor Heraclius, who may have commissioned them to celebrate his victory over the Persians in 628—629, which resulted in the recapture of Jerusalem.

During the war, it is said that Heraclius fought the Persian general Razatis in single-handed combat, an event which is perhaps evoked in the depiction of David's defeat of Goliath. Imperial imagery is present also on the middle-sized plates, where ceremonial scenes from the biblical king's life take place before the arcade of a palace. Their style is a conscious reference to classical art.

Provenance/Ownership History: Cyprus Treasure, Found at Karavás, Cyprus, 1902 ; Ex coll.: J. Pierpont Morgan, New York