Silver-gilt set with enamelled silver bosses, enamelled gold rosettes and pastes, Spain (probably Toledo), ca. 1620, unidentified maker's mark 'ENZISO' in an irregular-shaped punch.

Copper-gilt crown consisting of a circlet, pierced and set with glass paste stones supporting four curving straps set with glass paste stones, enamelled silver bosses and enamelled gold rossettes. The arched straps (two of which each support two further cross straps) meet at the top where they are surmounted by an orb and cross.

The Spanish Church
The Catholic church dominated public and private life in Spain. Money and labour were lavished on religious art and images played a central role in daily worship. To ensure that goldsmiths focused on work for the crown and the church, the authorities brought in a series of sumptuary laws that limited the secular display of gems and precious metals.

By 1550 the silver mines in Peru and Mexico were generating enormous wealth for Spain and feeding the traditional taste for massive silver forms. They included the custodia, a towering architectural canopy that was unique to Spain. It was paraded through parishes during the Corpus Christi festival to display the Sacred Host (consecrated bread). The custodia embodied many characteristics of Spanish church plate. It was sculptural, highly visible and richly imaginative in design.

With the Counter Reformation, Spain became a triumphant defender of a revitalised Catholic faith. Silver altar vessels and entire altars, processional crosses, monstrances and sanctuary lamps frequently appeared in goldsmiths’ contracts.

Said on acquisition to have come from near Madrid.

Statues of the Virgin Mary displayed in Roman Catholic churches are often crowned, alluding to her mystical role as the Queen of Heaven. Veneration of the Virgin is central to Catholic worship and the coronation of the Virgin by Jesus Christ was a popular subject in Catholic art of this period.

The crown is made in a style unique to Spanish goldsmiths' work of the period 1580-1610, a style inspired by the restrained architecture of Juan Herrera, who had worked on the Escorial Palace near Madrid for Philip II from about 1570. Metalwork of the period echoed his clean architectural lines, but craftsmen added enamel bosses and coloured pastes or gems for decoration.

145-1882