Ark-encolpion of Saint Demetrius, second half of the 12th century.

Small gilded silver box (11,7X6,5X6,5 cm.), which served as an encolpion and contained the blood and ransom of Saint Demetrius. It is directly connected to the honor attributed to the Saint during the mid-Byzantine years in Thessaloniki, which is also considered the place of manufacture of the precious, due to its rarity, relic. It is a miniature of the sarcophagus that was placed in the famous ciborium of the church of the patron saint of the city. The embossed representations that decorate it are believed to be copies of scenes from the specific church. The box has the shape of a rectangular parallelepiped. On one narrow side is a handle in the shape of a cross, from which it could be hung. Its outer cover is decorated with a full-length representation of the Myrrh-Bearer, who appears frontally, in a supplicating posture and in the ornate garb of a patrician; when it is pulled, an inner cover with two openings is revealed. Each of these is closed with an equal number of leaves, which decorate full-length figures of saints (Cosmas, Lupus, Nestor and Damian). Behind the leaves of the upper opening there is a bust of the dead Saint, with closed eyes and arms crossed on the chest; in the lower opening there is a dark-colored mass, which is considered to be myrrh and lythrus from the Saint's tomb in Thessaloniki. The outer surfaces of the encolpion are covered with simple, exegetical and in some places almost completely rendered scenes from the life, martyrdom and miracles of the Saint. The box is dated based on the simple iconography of its decoration and its style to the second half of the 12th century.