Chalice and Paten

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Chalice and Paten

Place of OriginItaly (Alghero, Sardinia)

Dateabout 1400

DimensionsA: Chalice: 14 × 5 5/8 × 8 5/8 in. (35.6 × 14.3 × 21.9 cm)
B: Paten: 1/4 × 10 3/4 in. (0.6 × 27.3 cm)

Mediumgilded and enameled silver

ClassificationMetalwork

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1955.223A-B

Not on View

Collections

Decorative Arts

Published References"Art in Antiques, Museum Buys 1956-1957," Art News, Summer, 1957, p. 14.

"Accessions of American and Canadian Museums, April-June 1957," Art Quarterly, vol. XX, no. 3, Autumn 1957, p. 317.

Toledo Museum News, New Series, vol. 3, no. 3, Summer 1960, p. 58, repr.

Riefstahl, Rudolf M., "Medieval Art," Toledo Museum News, New Series, vol. 7, no. 1, Spring 1964, p. 18, repr. (also published as Medieval Art).

"Medieval Art at Toledo: A Selection," Apollo, vol. 86, no. 70, December 1967, p. 442, repr. (b&w), fig. 12, 13, and 14.

The Toledo Museum of Art, A Guide to the Collections, Toledo, 1966, repr.

Putney, Richard H., Medieval Art, Medieval People: The Cloister Gallery of the Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, 2002, p. 11, repr. (col.) fig. 5(Chalice only).

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 112-113, repr. (col.) and (det.).

Exhibition HistoryCambridge, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Eucharistic Vessels of the Middle Ages, 1975, nos. 4 and 5, pp. 47-56, repr. p. 120, 121.

Cambrige, Fogg Museum, 1975.

Comparative ReferencesSee also Sales Catalogue, Alfred Rutsch: Collection (Zurich), Galerie Fischer, Lucerne, Sept. 5, 1931, lot 77 (similar Barcelona chalice).Label TextWorking in a late Gothic style around 1400, a goldsmith expertly crafted these ritual objects from gilded silver on the island of Sardinia in the Mediterranean, then part of the Spanish kingdom of Aragon. While precious metalwork was often melted down during periods of financial hardship or conflict, this chalice (cup) and paten (plate), used in the Christian Eucharist, remarkably survive together. In the Catholic sacramental ritual of the Eucharist, vessels like these contain and honor the bread and wine believed to manifest the body and blood of Christ during the mass. Much of the chalice’s surface has been engraved with acanthus leaves, vegetation common in the Mediterranean region. Christ appears twice in niello, a black metallic compound, as the Man of Sorrows and on the cross surrounded by the Instruments of the Passion (the events of his crucifixion). Images of saints appear in basse-taille, a technique in which a thin, translucent layer of enamel is fused to an engraved silver surface. The marks in the silver shine through the enamel, giving the effect of stained glass or precious jewels. The paten, a metal dish for holding the Eucharistic bread, displays 12 basse-taille enamel medallions of the Holy Trinity and 11 instead of 12 apostles (Judas is not included). They encircle a central image of the Assumption of the Virgin, in which angels, rising from a crowd of adoring apostles, guide her body to heaven.