Right Panel of a Reliquary Diptych with the Crucifixion and Saints

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Right Panel of a Reliquary Diptych with the Crucifixion and Saints

Place of Originprobably Siena, Italy

Dateabout 1370-1390

Dimensions8 3/4 × 6 5/8 × 5/8 in. (22.2 × 16.8 × 1.6 cm)

Mediumgilt and painted wood with pastiglia decoration and inset verre églomisée

ClassificationSculpture

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

Object number

2021.31

Not on View

DescriptionA rectangular, wooden panel covered with pastiglia decoration, red bole, and then gilded. The gold has been decorated with intricate punchwork and incised circular forms to resemble flowers. Extant hinges on the left-hand side suggest the panel once formed part of a diptych. Inset into the panel are five glass plaques decorated with the verre églomisé technique. The central, rectangular glass panel depicts the Crucifixion. The cruciform halo around Christ’s head intersects with the upper decorative border comprising quatrefoils each enclosed in their own rectangular cell. To his right, the haloed figure of the Virgin lowers her head and clasps her hands in sorrow. To his left, the haloed figure of John the Evangelist looks up at Christ, his hands held open. The flanking figures stand on a gilt ground incised with swirling tendrils on the left, but the right-hand side remains unfinished. In the center, the crucifix rises out of a small mound representing Golgotha. Around the perimeter are four glass roundels alternating with four vacant, carved cavities that once housed relics. With relics in place, these niches would have also contained parchment authentics identifying the holy contents and been covered, probably with glass. The circular medallions at the corners display cropped images of saints. The upper left roundel portrays the haloed and crowned head of a female saint in profile. In the upper right exhibits the head in three-quarter view of an elderly, bearded man whose halo intersects with the upper boundary of the medallion. The lower right presents a frontal view of a haloed youthful, clean-shaven man with chin-length, flowing hair. Finally, the lower left roundel pictures an image of a female martyr from the waist up; she holds a cross and what appears to be a book in her hands. The panel’s reverse preserves traces of painted decoration, which is largely lost. There are traces of a red and white frame around a blue ground with red curvilinear forms, as well as a central roundel with what appears to be red and blue drapery, perhaps of a sleeve, and the left edge of a halo at top. Six paper labels are adhered to the back, as well as a single ink customs stamp (Douanes Francaises).

Label TextIntended for private devotion, this reliquary panel harnesses the glittering effects of the union of glass and gold to suggest the divine. Also known as reverse foil engraving, verre églomisé involves gilding the back of a glass plaque with gold leaf, then scratching a design with a fine needle into the gold to create an image in clear glass on the front of the plaque. The process demonstrates the skill of the artist, distinguished by the expressive lines in the image of the Crucifixion of Christ and the saints in the four corner medallions.Published ReferencesSammlung Schloss Rohoncz, Plastik und Gewerbe, exh. cat., Munich, Neue Pinakothek, 1930, p. 33, cat. 86.

Swarzenski, Georg, "The Localization of Medieval Verre Eglomisé in the Walters collections," Journal of the Walters Art Gallery, 3, 1940, pp. 60-63, repr. 60.

Eisler, Colin, "Verre Eglomisé and Paolo di Giovanni Fei, Journal of Glass Studies, 1961, p. 36.

Pettenati, Silvana, I vetri Dorati graffiti e i vetri dipinti, Turin, Museo Civico di Torino, 1978, p. 15.

Williamson, Paul, Medieval Sculpture and Works of Art: The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, London, P. Wilson for Sotheby's Publications, 1987, pp. 172-175, repr. 163, 172, 174.

Campbell, Marian and Michaela Zoschg, "Gilded glass and English saints: a medieval reliquary at Douai Abbey," The Burlington Magazine, 163, April 2021, pp. 319-320, repr. 320.

Exhibition HistoryMunich, Neue Pinakothek, Sammlung Schloss Rohoncz. Plastik und Gewerbe, 1930, no. 86.