Spherical small container (pyxis) with representations of Christ, Virgin and two archangels

This small spherical vessel, called a pyxis, belongs in style and technique to a group of silver objects produced in Syria for Christians. A lid, now lost, would have covered the vessel, protecting its sacred contents-either incense used in the liturgy or perhaps a small piece of a saintly relic. The economic prosperity and political stability of Syria in the Early Byzantine period allowed individuals to donate costly liturgical vessels to their local churches. Objects such as this served as votives, prayers in the form of precious gifts, entreating Christ and the Virgin to act as intercessors between the donors and the court of heaven. The excavation of a similar spherical silver reliquary at a site in modern-day Bulgaria, culturally part of Thrace, suggests that sacred relics sometimes traveled across the Mediterranean in containers made by Syrian craftsmen.This vessel was made by hammering a thin sheet of silver into the desired form and then polishing it while it spun, a standard technique of Syrian silversmiths. Encircling the vessel are four standing figures, carved in relief and accented with gilding. Two archangels wear military costumes, as if court guards; each holds a staff and an orb marked with a cross. Christ, long-haired and bearded, gestures in blessing with his right hand, while in his left he carries the holy Gospels. The Virgin, who is rarely represented on early Byzantine silver, holds a disklike object marked with a cross; this unusual object, similar to ones found in sixth- and seventh-century paintings decorating Christian funerary chapels in Egypt, must symbolize the incarnation, referring to the virginal birth of Christ and reflecting the growing status of Mary as the mother of God.