What Was the Intended Message of the Lothar Crystal and Who Was Its Audience?

The Lothar Crystal, also known as the Susanna Crystal or London Crystal is one of the most highly skilled extant examples of Carolingian engraving ever created and currently apart of the British Museum’s collection. Created in a style that appears to have already dwindling It is a single lentoid of clear quartz that measures some four and a half inches (11.5cm) in diameter and depicts the biblical scenes of Susanna’s Judgement from Daniel 13. There are some very fine flaws running horizontally through scene six and partly into scene seven, and one severe crack through it’s centre. Supposedly it was cracked when thrown into the Meuse during the sack of Waulsort by the French in 1793. The flaws do not obscure the engraved design but cause a slight sparkle when the stone is moved. The interpretation of this exquisite piece has been a point of contention among scholars of the Carolingian era for over a century as the engraving suffers considerably from a lack of contemporary sources. Conjecture and misinterpretation throughout history has been a constant hindrance to the understanding of this piece and the intended message conveyed within the eight scenes and forty figures of the Lothar Crystal. This intended meaning and to whom the Crystal was intended to be shown shall be the primary focus of this essay, as well as discerning the true intention of its creation.

The date of the origin on this gem is a debatable issue, It is popularly known as the Lothar Crystal because it has engraved upon it, encircling a central medallion, the legend “LOTHARIVS REX FRANC[ORVM ME F]IERI IVSST” (“Lothar King of the Franks ordered me to be made”). In order to understand the message conveyed, The issue that has caused much contention is to which Lo...

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... is done even at personal cost to himself. Justice is the defining royal virtue.

The Lothar Crystal is considered to be one of the earliest depictions of the rule of law in european art. Lothair needed to show his people how integral justice was to his reign, even at the expense of his empire. Made for a king without an heir in a kingdom without a future.

If he had divorced his Theutberga and consolidated his reign with a legitimate son, perhaps Lotharingia would be as powerful today as its fraternal territories Germany and France. However, even though Lotharingia is no more, the principal the crystal proclaims is still alive. By the presence of the public in scenes three through eight; and by the depiction of a prominent judge in the final scene. Just judgment seems undeniably to be at the iconographic heart of the Susanna Crystal and the key to it’s message.