4th-6th century AD. A carved marble statue fragment, a right hand gripping a Greek cross, wearing a finger ring on the third finger with disc bezel and cross pattée emblem. See Grabar, A.,L'età d'oro di Giustiniano,Milano, 1966; Sodini, P., La sculpture protobyzantine, in Byzance, l’Art byzantin dans les collections publiques françaises, Paris, 1992, pp.30-33; Mathews, T.F., Clash of gods, a reinterpretation of early Christian art, Princeton, 2003; Hahn C. (ed.), Objects of devotion and desire, medieval relic to contemporary art, January 27-April 30, 2011, catalogue of the exhibition at the Bertha and Karl Lebsdorf Art Gallery, Hunter College, New York, 2011; Various, Byzanz Pracht und Alltag, Kunst und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn 26. Februar bis 13 Juni 2010, Mainz, 2010; Cormack,R., Vassilaki M., Byzantium, 330-1453, London, 2012; Spier, J., Byzantium and the West, jewelry in the first millennium, New York, 2012. 1.2 kg, 14cm (5 1/2"). Property of a Brussels collector; formerly in an old German collection formed in the 1990s; supplied with geologic report TL005228 by Dr R. L. Bonewitz, and an academic archaeological report by specialist Dr Raffaele D'Amato. The statue may represent an apostle, an early churchman or saint, or even Christ, executed in life-size and with considerable attention to detail. Many statues of bishops, for example, feature the figure holding a crozier in the right hand, or the hand raised with fingers extended in the act of benediction. The present example is likely to have represented an early figure from church history, perhaps John the Baptist or one of the Church Fathers.