Depicted on the foot of the chalice is a scene of “Christ the Vine”. The whole surface is covered by the vine, which evolves into a decorative frame that encloses the portraits of Christ's disciples. The disciples are rendered in high relief, thus bringing the compositions out of the background; the scene creates a sense of movement and is full of expressiveness. The knot, on the other hand, is decorated in low relief with busts of angels, cupids in full length, garlands and engraved strapwork; its conception appears to be pictorial rather than sculptural as in the “Christ the Vine” composition.
The chalice must have been destined for an ecclesiastical treasury; its exceptional quality and monumental size indicate that it wasn't created as a functional object. A particularly interesting fact is that during the Greek Revolution of 1821 the Patmian Patriarch of Alexandria Theofilos Pagkostas celebrated the Divine Liturgy on the Psariots’ flagship and offered the Eucharist to the captains and the sailors with this chalice, before the victorious naval battle of Gerontas (1824).
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