Michael Attaleiates was a Byzantine historian of the 11th century, a tumultuous time. I actually love his work The fact we have gold enamel ring is truly remarkable, considering most artifacts of history do not survive or are not found. I find objects like this intriguing because they remind us, these are not just names in a book, they were real people with real prized possessions just like us today.
His work, The History, which details the period from 1034-1079, just before Alexios Komnenos took power. It is an extremely valuable source on this time, especially regarding Romanos Diogenes, the tragic figure at the battle of Manzikert in 1071 which led the loss of Anatolia to the Seljuk Turks. I strongly recommend reading it.
The description from the Dumbarton Oaks page(link at the bottom of the page) offers some information and detail on the crafting of the ring:
“This historically important ring belonged to the jurist Michael Attaleiates (ca. 1020–after 1085). A judge, author of a well-known legal textbook, senator, and historian, he was given the honorific title of proedros. He also endowed religious institutions and participated in the cosmopolitan circles of the intelligentsia in Constantinople.
The bezel or face of the ring displays the bust of the Virgin flanked by the abbreviation “Mother of God,” while the hoop has the inscription “Bearer of God, help thy servant Michael Attaleiates.” Mother of God and Bearer of God (Theotokos) were the two most widely used epithets for the Virgin in Byzantium after the end of Iconoclasm in the ninth century. Byzantine rings bearing the name of their owners are rare, and a ring connected with so eminent a citizen is extremely rare. It may have been an official award rather than a personal commission and is thus an exceptional document as well as testimony to the inextricable connections between social status, religious ideology, and aesthetic sensibility of works of art made during the Byzantine Empire.
The ring is also noteworthy because it is not executed in the cloisonné technique, the usual technique of enameling in Byzantium. Instead, it is in the champlevé technique, associated with western European production during the Middle Ages. In this technique, the enamel fills a cavity that is carved away or depressed into the supporting background with raised lines, integral to the background, left to define the image. The champlevé technique was capable of bravura details such as the drapery folds crisscrossing the Virgin’s figure and the abbreviations that flank her head. The figure style and the Greek inscription indicate that this technique had been fully mastered by a Byzantine artist.”
SOURCE:
shadowsofconstantinople.com 