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15.
Renaissance Belt Ring with Inscription
“SVIS A VOVS”
England or France, 16th century
Height 21 mm., exterior width of hoop 20 mm., width of band 2 mm.
Weight 1.6 gr., US size 7.25, UK size O
The band of this delicate gold ring takes the shape of a belt with a finely engraved acanthus frieze
on the exterior. The elaborate design of the buckle consists of symmetrical C-scrolls. The belt is
depicted fastened, and the overlapping belt end is held in place by a loop. Inside the plain interior
of the band is an engraved love message in capital letters: “SVIS A VOVS.”
As decorative adornments that can be fashioned to resemble other objects (see no. 5)
and as objects that can, in some respects, speak for themselves (see no. 6), rings occupy
a curious space in the imagination, at times assuming other symbolic identities, at times
asserting their own. This ring achieves both. Shaped like a fastened belt, it takes on
multiple meanings: the belt was associated in many cultures throughout the world with
fidelity, fertility, or childbirth, and it still is to this day. The ring’s inscription is similarly
ambiguous. With the inscription “[JE] SVIS A VOVS” (“I am yours”), the giver expresses
a poignant declaration of love that only the wearer can see, while, at the same time, the
ring speaks of itself to its wearer: “I [this ring] am yours.”
In everyday dress, the belt encircles the waist as a functional accessory; yet going back
to early history it has been steeped in potent symbolism.1 Some tribes believed it
to be a source of life.2 In Greek mythology, the girdle of Aphrodite, the goddess of
love, bestowed sexual attractiveness on the wearer, and the girdle of Artemis of Ephesus
promised fertility and a safe birth. In ancient Rome, Juno, the goddess of marriage and
childbirth, was even bequeathed the title Juno Cinxia (“belted Juno”).
In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, rings made of bronze and shaped like girdles
or buckled straps were produced in large numbers.3 Although it has been suggested
that they were used like pilgrim badges, they have never been linked to a specific place
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of pilgrimage. It is more likely that these rings, which bear the Latin inscription Mater
dei memanto (“Mother of God, remember me”), were popular amulets for mothers-tobe seeking protection during pregnancy and safe delivery in childbirth. The amuletic
power of the late medieval belt ring derives from the girdle of the Virgin Mary, symbolic
of chastity and purity. According to legend, during her Assumption into heaven, the
Virgin Mary dropped her belt down upon Saint Thomas the Apostle as proof of her
ascendance. The scene is illustrated in the early Renaissance painting Madonna della
Cintola by Filippo Lippi, 1455-1465, in Prato Cathedral, home of the relic of the Holy
Girdle and a place of pilgrimage for expectant mothers. In France in Puy Notre-Dame,
near Montreuil-Bellay, a further relic of the Holy Girdle, brought back by crusaders, is
venerated by pregnant women.4 In Europe there is also a long tradition of giving the
wife a marriage belt.5
A similar gold belt ring dating to the late seventeenth century, now in the Schweizerisches
Nationalmuseum, Zurich, has on either side of the buckle a ruby, the gemstone symbolic
of love.6 This ring with the secret message of love “SVIS A VOVS” is a rare survival of a
belt ring which may have belonged to an expectant mother.
The Virgin of the Belt by Fra Filippo Lippi (1406-1469)
Tempera on wood
Italy, 1455-1465
(Prato, Museo Civico)
Notes:
Ströter-Bender 1992, pp. 155-59
Paine 2004, p. 74.
For examples in the British Museum, London, see Dalton 1912, pp. 696-99; for one in the Norwich
Castle Museum, see Ward et al. 1981, pl. 146; for one in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London,
see Church 2011, p. 21, fig.19; and, from the early fourteenth-century Colmar Treasure, Musée
de Cluny, unpublished, inv. no. Cl. 14943. Further examples can be found in the Bayerisches
Nationalmuseum, Munich, and in the Alice and Louis Koch Collection, Schweizerisches
Nationalmuseum, Zurich (see Chadour 1994, no. 582).
4
Herrmann 2003, p. 95. The girdle was also a particular object of veneration at Chartres and Aachen Cathedral.
5
Bayer 2008, pp. 62 f.; Perry 2013, p. 119 and figs. 13, 180.
6
Unpublished, inv. no. LM-152657.3.
1
The Virgin gives her belt to Saint Thomas as proof of her
Assumption in this painting housed in Prato Cathedral,
home of the relic of the Holy Girdle and a popular place of
pilgrimage for expectant mothers.
2
3
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A belt ring in gold of the late seventeenth century has on
either side of the buckle a ruby, the gemstone symbolic
of love.
Gold Belt Ring with Rubies
Western Europe, late 17th century
(Zurich, Schweizerisches Nationalmuseum, LM-152657.3)
Scandinavian design at its most avant-garde transforms a
medieval symbol into a modern sculptural form in sterling
silver.
Belt Buckle Ring
Designed by A.G.E. and made by Hans Hansen
Denmark, Kolding, c. 1970
(Zurich, Schweizerisches Nationalmuseum,
Alice and Louis Koch Collection)
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