Discovery and Condition
The missorium comes from a treasure of silver objects that also included two plain silver cups, now missing, discovered by a labourer in 1847 in Almendralejo, close to Mérida in the Spanish province of Badajoz. When found it was folded flat along the line of the diagonal cut that now divides it into two pieces, which was made as part of an attempt to restore it, though an attempt at a cut along the same line may also have been made in antiquity. It is in good condition apart from the areas affected by this, but that it was folded may suggest it was being treated as bullion when deposited. The height of the silver relief varies, and is highest in the face of Theodosius and other highlights of the composition; much of the detail on the clothing is engraved.
Read more about this topic: Missorium Of Theodosius I
Famous quotes containing the words discovery and/or condition:
“As the mother of a son, I do not accept that alienation from me is necessary for his discovery of himself. As a woman, I will not cooperate in demeaning womanly things so that he can be proud to be a man. I like to think the women in my son’s future are counting on me.”
—Letty Cottin Pogrebin (20th century)
“Even though I had let them choose their own socks since babyhood, I was only beginning to learn to trust their adult judgment.. . . I had a sensation very much like the moment in an airplane when you realize that even if you stop holding the plane up by gripping the arms of your seat until your knuckles show white, the plane will stay up by itself. . . . To detach myself from my children . . . I had to achieve a condition which might be called loving objectivity.”
—Anonymous Parent of Adult Children. Ourselves and Our Children, by Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, ch. 5 (1978)