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Reliquary Casket

A work made of gilt copper, champlevé enamel over wood core.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of gilt copper, champlevé enamel over wood core.

Date:

c. 1200

Artist:

French; Limoges

About this artwork

This reliquary casket, with its vibrantly colored enamel fields, is typical of the objects created at the prolific workshops in and around Limoges, France, in the Middle Ages. By the end of the 12th century, opus lemovicense (Limoges work) had gained an international reputation, and documentary sources indicate that ornamentation with enamel was considered as precious as that with gemstones. Six figures of saints appear on the front panels of the casket, while a single saint is shown standing on each end panel. This decidedly nonspecific iconography would have made the casket appropriate for any number of churches and allowed it to house the relics of virtually any saint.

Status

On View, Gallery 236

Department

Applied Arts of Europe

Title

Reliquary Casket

Place

Limoges (Object made in)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1190–1210

Medium

Gilt copper, champlevé enamel over wood core

Dimensions

15.6 × 13.3 × 6.8 cm (6 1/8 × 5 1/4 × 2 11/16 in.)

Credit Line

Kate S. Buckingham Endowment

Reference Number

1943.72

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/46253/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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