About This Artwork
Monstrance with Relic of Saint Christina, 1450/1500
Silver, crystal, and enamel
D. 8.9 cm (3 1/2 in.) H. 22.2 cm (8 3/4 in.)
Gift of Mrs. Chauncey McCormick, 1962.90
Medieval to Modern European Painting and Sculpture
Not on Display
Exhibition, Publication and Ownership Histories
Exhibition History
The Guelph Treasure Exhibition took place in 1930-31 at the following venues: Frankfurt, Städelsches Kunstinstitut; Berlin, Deutsche Gesellschaft; New York, Reinhardt and Goldschmidt Galleries; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Museum of Art (now the Philadelphia Museum of Art); the Cleveland Museum of Art; the Detroit Institute of Arts; The Art Institute of Chicago (March 31st to April 20th, 1931); and San Francisco, The M. H. de Young Museum, cat. 56.
Publication History
G. W. Molanus, Lipsanographia sive Thesaurus sanctarum Reliquiarum Electoralis Brunsvico-Luneburgicus (Hanover, 1697), no. 23.
W. A. Neumann, Der Reliquienschatz des Hauses Braunschweig-Lüneburg (Vienna, 1891), pp. 300-301, no. 67.
O von Falke, R. Schmidt, and G. Swarzenski, The Guelph Treasure (Frankfurt am Main, 1930), pp. 89, 91, 189, no. 56.
Bessie Bennett, "Some Ecclesiastical Objects," Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 25, 6 (September 1931), pp. 78-79 here 79.
"Chicagoan Buys Objects from the Guelph Treasure," The Art News, 29, 16 (January, 17, 1931), p. 8.
Patrick M. De Winter, The Sacral Treasures of the Guelphs, Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 72, 1 (March 1985), p. 118, fig. 148. and 142, no. 74.
Patrick M. De Winter, Der Welfenschatz: Zeugnis sakraler Kunst des Deutschen Mittelalters (Hanover, 1986), p. 174, no. 74.
Ownership History
From the Church of Saint Blaise, Brunswick [not recorded in the inventory of relics at Saint Blaise, 1482, so presumably entered the treasury after this date : see de Winter, 1985, pp. 118, 142]; remained along with the other treasure objects in possession of Saint Blaise, even after the congregation abolished Catholic service in 1540; given in 1670 by Duke Rudolph August of Brunswick-Lüneburg to his cousin, Johann Friedrich of Hanover (d. 1679), as indemnity for his help in squashing a rebellion in Brunswick [see de Winter, p. 128]; placed in the court chapel of the palace of Leinenschloss at Hanover until 1803 [see Molanus, 1697, no. 23], when it was transferred to England, where the House of Hanover had ruled since 1714, for safekeeping from threat of Napoleonic invasion [de Winter, 130]; the Dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg were created electors of Hanover in 1692 by imperial decree, and in 1814, the title of elector of Hanover was raised to that of King by the Congress of Vienna [see de Winter, p. 130]; in 1861, King George V of Hanover (d. 1878) founded the Guelph Museum in Hanover, thereby eliding the treasure from Saint Blaise with the name of one of its earliest founding families, the Guelphs, or Welf in German, Dukes of Saxony in the twelfth-fourteenth centuries [de Winter, p. 13]; in 1867, Hanover was annexed by Prussia, but the former ruling family was allowed to keep the contents of the Guelph Museum, which they immediately transferred to the castle of Cumberland in Gmunden, Austria, and then Penzing Castle near Vienna; in 1869 the former King George, now duke of Cumberland, temporarily entrusted the Treasure to the Österreichisches Museum für Kunst und Industrie, Vienna, before returning it to the ducal castle in Gmunden [de Winter, p. 132]; by descent to Duke Ernst August I (d. 1923) [see Neumann, 1891, p. 300-301]; by descent to Duke Ernst August II (d. 1953) in 1911, who had the Treasure moved to a bank vault in Switzerland in 1918 for safekeeping [de Winter, p. 132]; in October 1929, the Treasure was sold to a consortium of dealers: Julius Falk Goldschmidt of the firm I. S. Goldscmidt, and Zacharias Max Hackenbroch, Isaak Rosenbaum, and Saemy Rosenbaum of the firm J. Rosenbaum [see De Winter 1985, p. 133]; purchased in 1931 by Mrs. Chauncey (Marion Deering) McCormick (d. 1965) for $8,000 from the Goldschmidt Galleries, NY [according to notes in Registrar’s files]; on loan to the museum as of April 24, 1931; accessioned to the museum in 1962.