Fibula de Breganza

Well it turns out there is only one of a kind, and it’s at The British Museum.  Naturally, it has bullet-proof provenance as you would expect with BM acquisitions, because there resides a very stiff panel of experts that can really decipher what they’re looking at.  See ‘Bolton Forger‘.

Breganza Brooch

Thankfully there are a ton of images out there of this particular fibula and it’s been exhibited many times prior to its present location.

It’s even been copied by a jewellery workshop in Toledo, who then wrote a book about how they did it.

I think the copy they crafted is good, the colour’s wrong, but overall it’s good.  I don’t like the warrior’s face though, so, back to basics.

Here are three versions of what I’m dealing with here, see below. As usual the first one is probably best, the rest get progressively more heavy handed.  What was I doing with that gold Sharpie? Since then I found more of my materials.

Aside from that, I think I retained the essential drama of the piece.

Now I find however, that I’m not entirely sure how I feel about the viewpoint of the piece from what I know now about it’s history.

“Hellenistic craftsman commissioned by an Iberian client“  (methinks warlord) who was possibly (methinks probably) not himself Celtic?   Then owned much later by the House of Breganza for many years.

The House of Breganza I believe and have no problem with, especially as the Celtic region in Spain stretched across to what is now Portugal.

What I’m a little uncomfortable with is, that in my view, it was made to impress non Celtic people, and worn by a non Celtic person.  You have to ask yourself why? Think about it, why would this high ranking person commission a Greek goldsmith, why not remain within ‘the tribe‘?  IMO it was because he was advertising his potential strength in battle.

But at least it’s a detailed description of a very successful and proud Celtic warrior.  I mean he’s looking at the huge dog as if it were a Yorkshire Terrier, in fact if you think about the story the piece tells, it looks like all the dogs were probably his.  Dogs used in battle were very typical in ancient times and still are. (I think the later Roman battle dog was particularly frightening, if you ask me.)
The Celts were famous for breeding battle dogs and I believe in Ireland the Celts had a high reputation for that.

Looks to me that by the time this piece was made, the Celtiberians were mercenaries who were losing most of their territory but were trying to adapt (survive).

Always great miners, warriors, craftsmen and lovers of gold.  Notice how there is always a Celtic community living near a gold mine, in fact, much later, by the time the Romans reached France, they discovered the Celts actually had many secret gold mines.  In England there were and still are, active gold mines in Cornwall and Wales.  English gold tends to be subtlety more pink, whereas Iberian gold tended to be a very warm yellow.  The Sky Disc of Nebra contains Cornish gold.

I think gold mining in Spain ended around 1500, or possibly earlier, but before that, they had a lot of gold and it was truly luscious.

Gold Mining in Iberia

The amazing gold torcs of the Celtiberians have been unearthed around Stone Henge a heap of times.  You’ve only to go to the Salisbury and Ashmolean museums to see them.

The Celtic world had very strong links and their oral history must have been amazing., hence why we all love a good story.

Also let’s not forget, much later, the legend of Tristan and Isolde, he was supposed to have been Iberian, that one could say “came over here and got a job” quite easily, kind of thing.

Anyway, now back to these foundation drawings...

There are finally 8 swirls of hair, but there is a mistake at the bottom of the composition.  In better photos I can see it’s solder, but for this drawing I didn’t have that information and so um, fudged it.

I think the part of this design that makes my eyes bulge most is the ‘filigree’ around the inner curve of the ‘dragon’s’ neck.  It’s not a dragon per se, it’s a dog or semi wolf, but in my view, it has to have been an influence in the dragon motif evolution blah.

So I’ll do a blow up of the section of ‘filigree’ and show you a very interesting design detail.

Gotta go ppl, but before I do, here’s my rendition of Isolde....I wish....hahaha,