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Eucharistic Dove
Limoges workshop (?); Milanese workshop (?)1220s
Museo Diocesano Milano
Milano, Italy
Details
- Title: Eucharistic Dove
- Creator Lifespan: 1220s - 1220s
- Creator Nationality: French (?), Italian (?)
- Date: 1220s
- Physical Location: Italy
- Physical Dimensions: d7.2 cm (Diameter 12.5 cm)
- Goldsmith: Limoges workshop (?); Milanese workshop (?)
- Description: The head and body of the dove are formed by two shaped copper plates, welded together, then covered in gold and decorated with fine engravings. On the back there is a hinged lid that closes the pyx, or host carrier. The wings (applied with tacks) and tail (made with two thick, overlapping sheets of metal) are decorated with champlevé enamel, while the eyes are made of two dark glass pearls of paste and the beak and legs are cast metal. As indicated by the hole in the back, protected by the hinged lid, this piece falls into the category of the Eucharistic dove, done in champlevé (note that there are about forty examples of this type). It is a kind of ciborium/monstrance that, before the appearance of the fixed tabernacle, rested on a plate fitted with pendant chains, hanging above the altar. Its function was both to preserve the hosts during Mass and to show them, as evidenced in some cases by the presence of a small opening on the breast of the dove. The rich and varied palette itself, in addition to the naturalism of the plumage, the knowledgeable use of the chisel that modulates the lines, and the equally particular use of embossing to enrich the golden metal portions suggest a date around the end of the second decade of the thirteenth century. It also hints at a Milanese version of champlevé, a technique that originated in Limoges, but which seems to have also been used in workshops on the Italian peninsula (Rome and Tuscany, including Pisa, Florence, Siena and Pistoia). The work, from the Basilica of San Nazaro in Milan and formerly preserved in the Museum of the Treasury of the Cathedral, has been in the Diocesan Museum since 2007.
- Type: Metalwork
- Rights: © Archivio fotografico Museo Diocesano, Milano
- Medium: Champlevé enamels on copper cover with gold, metal
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