A chalice.

Wenceslaus (or Wenzel) Hollar (1607-77) was an Anglo-Czech artist, and one of the greatest and most prolific printmakers of the 17th century. His art  reveals his immensely wide subject range, and reflects the priorities of his time: religion, mythology, satire, landscapes, geography and maps, portraits, women, costumes, sports, natural history, architecture, heraldry, numismatics, ornaments, title-pages and initials. 

Between 1636 and 1644 Hollar was employed as an artist and cataloguer in the household of Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel, one of the greatest art collectors of his era. The Earl, a victim of the English Civil War, fled overseas and died in 1646; Hollar himself moved with his family to Antwerp in 1644. The return of political stability led to Hollar's own return to London in 1652, where he lived and worked until his death.

Hollar made this etching from a drawing in Lord Arundel's collection that was attributed at the time to the great early Renaissance artist Andrea Mantegna. The drawing entered the British Museum in the late 19th century, and is now regarded as an anonymous Venetian work. The etching reflects the affinity between precious metalwork and printmaking, and the splendour of the chalice's decorative detailing is lovingly rendered by Hollar. The detailed religious designs on the bowl of the chalice depict scenes from the life of Jesus, while the apostles surround the stem; above them are standing cherubs, while cherubs' heads float above them. Above the rim is a curve possibly representing the holy wafer (eaten in the Holy Communion service).

See:

http://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/tag/wenceslaus-hollar/

Richard Pennington, <em>A Descriptive Catalogue of the Etched Work of Wenceslaus Hollar 1607-1677</em> (Cambridge, 1982), pp. 390-91 (no. 2643).

Dr Mark Stocker   Curator, Historical International Art       June 2017