almost
all the early medieval rings found in this region. On the contrary, M.
Albert Béquet, Curator of the Archœological Museum of Namur, and the
French archseologist, M. L. Pilloy, report the discovery of rings
placed upon the left hand. As a possible explanation of these
contradictory results, the opinion has been advanced that the rings on
the right hand were wedding rings, and those on the left, rings worn
for ornament, as there is good evidence that at an early period among
the Gauls the betrothal ring was put on the right hand, not on the left.98
The
portrait by Coello of Maria of Austria, daughter of Charles V of
Germany, shows on the fourth finger of the left hand a ring set with a
large table-cut stone, which may be a ruby, or else a rather
dark-hued spinel. The right hand is gloved, the parts of the glove
covering the index and fourth fingers having slits so as to give space
for the rings on those fingers. There is an elaborate girdle of
table-cut stones, a richly worked cross with three pendent pear-shaped
pearls is suspended from a gauze scarf about the neck, splendid pearl
earrings hang from the ears, and the coiffure is surmounted by a head
ornament set with precious stones and pearls.
In
a three-quarter length portrait of Henry VIII, -painted by Hans Holbein
in 1540, when the king was in his forty-sixth year, he is represented
wearing three rings on his hands, two of these, set with square-cut
stones, are on the index fingers of the right and left hand,
respectively. The third and smaller ring, also set with a square-cut
stone, is on the little finger of the king's left hand. There is an
intentional harmony in the jewelling, for
88 Deloche, " Le port des anneaux dans l'antiquité et dans les premiers siècles du moyen âge," pp. 61—63.
Flickr
Stumbleupon
Scribd
