Eagle Fibula

Description This object along with Walters 54.421 form a pair of superb eagle-shaped fibula found at Tierra de Barros (Badajoz, southwest Spain) made of sheet gold over bronze inlaid with garnets, amythysts, and colored glass. Pendants once dangled from the loops at the bottom. The eagle, a popular symbol during the Migration period adopted from Roman imperial insignia, was favored by the Goths. Similar eagle-shaped fibulae have been excavated from Visigothic graves in Spain and Ostrogothic graves in northern Italy, but this pair is one of the finest. These fibula would have been worn at the same time to fasten a cloak at either shoulder.

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
10/10/1960	Treatment	cleaned
10/17/1963	Examination	other

Exhibitions

• Art of the Dark Ages. Worcester Art Museum, Worcester. 1937.
• Early Christian and Byzantine Art. Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore. 1947.
• Spanish Medieval Art. The Cloisters, New York. 1954-1955.
• Jewelry - Ancient to Modern. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1979-1980.
• To Arrest the Ravages of Time: Caring for Art at the Walters. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1996.
• Highlights from the Collection. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1998-2001.
• Bedazzled: 5,000 Years of Jewelry from the Walters Art Museum. Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville; The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota; The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. 2006-2009.
• Heirs of the Empire in North Africa-The Kingdom of the Vandals. Badisches Landesmuseum, Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe. 2009-2010.
• Excursions through the Collection: Portraiture, Adornment, and the Natural World. 2019-2021.

Provenance [Found at Tierra de Barros, Badajoz, Estremadura]; Henri Daguerre, Paris, 1930; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1930; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters, 1930