Love and Courtship

Unknown   (German)

Medallion

15th century


silver, niello

2.25 in diameter

5.72 cm

Adolph D. and Wilkins C. Williams Fund
68.19.3.1

Probably depicting a marriage portrait, this small badge presents the busts of a man and a woman facing front with shoulders overlapping; the man raises his right hand to the woman in an amiable gesture. By portraying the couple in a frontal pose rather than in profile, the artist is able to include facial expressions and thereby communicate a physical and psychological relationship between the two. The medallion is held within a silver frame and served as a hat badge.
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