标题: A Saxon Brooch to Hold Cloak in Place [打印本页] 作者: choi 时间: 2-1-2023 11:40 标题: A Saxon Brooch to Hold Cloak in Place 本帖最后由 choi 于 2-1-2023 16:31 编辑
Jane Coombs, Celebration of the Senses. Wall Street Journal, Jan 28, 2023, at page C14 (under the heading "Fuller Brooch (Late Ninth Century)" in the weekly "Masterpiece" column). https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-s ... -museum-11674861139
Note:
(a) "a magnificent etched design in burnished silver and niello, a black metallic substance pressed into the grooves"
(b) "plants, animals and humans that fits perfectly inside 16 roundels, four lentoids and one central lozenge."
(i) A roundel is one of the 16 circles (four in each quadrant) in between inner and outer rings -- the latter being the rim of the brooch.
(ii) lentoid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lentoid
comes from the noun lens, and here is one of the four within the inner ring that depicts one of the four senses.
(iii) lozenge (n): "a figure with four equal sides and two acute and two obtuse angles : DIAMOND" https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lozenge
encloses the sense of Sight.
(c) "A small cross adorns the lower part of Sight's garment, possibly a bishop's pallium, above lines evoking puddles of fabric."
(A) pallium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pallium
(d) "Alfred, ruler of Wessex, a kingdom in southern England"
(i) Wessex https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wessex
is derived from "Old English Westseaxan (literally 'West Saxons')." Wiktionary.
(ii) Modern English dictionary:
* Saxon (n; plural Saxons; "from Old English *Seaxa (attested in plural Seaxan)" https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Saxon
The asterisk in front of "Seaxa" indicated that the singular form is DEDUCED. In other words, Seaxa is singular and Seaxan, plural.