This notice of mediæval finger rings may be concluded by drawing
attention to a picture which, in view of the jewellery of the Middle
Ages, is one of the most fascinating of all the productions of the
Flemish school. The panel in question, the property of Baron A.
Oppenheim, of Cologne, represents the legend of St. Godeberta and St.
Eloy. It was painted in the year 1449 for the corporation of goldsmiths
of Antwerp by Petrus Christus, who flourished in the first half of the
fifteenth century, and died at Bruges about 1472. Appropriately enough,
the patron saint of goldsmiths is figured in his shop; and the picture
thus affords us a singularly interesting and attractive representation
of the interior of a jeweller's shop in the middle of the fifteenth
century with every detail of its glittering contents. St. Eloy or
Eligius, whose figure, for all we know, may be the portrait of some
well-known jeweller of the day, is seen seated at the goldsmith's bench,
beside which stand Dagobert, King of France, and St. Godeberta. He is
employed in weighing the ring with which the King seeks to espouse the
Virgin Saint; but instead, so the legend runs, of giving her the
engagement ring, he slipped on her finger a ruby ring, mystically
espousing her to Christ. The King wears, pinned to the front of his
black chaperon, a brooch or enseigne, set with a ruby surrounded by four
pearls and having a pendent drop. Round his neck is a curb chain of
alternate plain and beaded links, from which hangs a jewel formed of two
lions _affrontés_. Godeberta's head-dress, or _escoffion_, is of
embroidered gold sewn with pearls. The pendant of her neck-chain, hidden
by the bodice, lies between the breasts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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