La vaisselle d’argent à l’époque théodosienne: «renaissance classique» ou fin de l’art antique?

The production of silver dishware is particularly well-known for the Theodosian period. Furthermore, a few such objects may be dated with considerable precision (which is rare), such as the missorium of Theodosius and the casket of Projecta. Moreover, recent challenges to the precise dating of these objects lack a solid basis. These two pieces may thus be used as points of departure for several observations on silver dishware from the late 4^th and early 5^th century. One may notice that many works based on new aesthetic principles which appear at the end of Antiquity, more oriented toward graphic effects and schematic compositions, rather than volume and depictions of space. The development of niello is a result of these sensitivities. In other objects, not only does one still find a traditional iconographic repertory, but also in their mode of manufacture can be seen, to a certain extent, elements of an art inherited from Hellenism. Yet there is no real “renaissance” in the production of silver dishware in this period, as is often asserted, since on the one hand we find these aesthetic sensibilities throughout the 4^th century, and even after; and on the other hand, since the two tendencies are contemporary, not successive, and seem to have been appreciated by the same amateurs. Finally, among the reliefs which are in Classical tradition, the style is far from being homogeneous: Late Antiquity’s production of silver dishware is characterized above all by its diversity.