Spain, 16th century. Silver-gilt, chased with scenes from the new Testament.; Church plate, Continental

Chalice, consisting of a bell-shaped bowl with an openwork calyx, a triple baluster stem embossed with skulls and cross bones suspended by ribbons and a round foot embossed with scenes from the New Testament.

Dr W.L. Hildburgh Bequest

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, custodias and sanctuary lamps frequently appeared in goldsmiths' contracts.

The chalice is one of the most important vessels of the Roman Catholic church. It contains the wine consecrated by the priest during the service of Mass. In Catholic belief the wine miraculously transforms into the blood of Christ during this service, so chalices were usually made from precious metals to reflect the precious status of their contents.

Spanish goldsmiths were very inventive in their designs for church silver. Here, six scenes from the New Testament, including the Nativity and the Crucifixion, are compressed into a frieze of great vitality on the foot of the chalice. The stem features skulls and crossbones suspended by ribbons, probably in reference to Golgotha (Hebrew for ‘the place of the skull’), the site of Christ’s crucifixion.

M.227-1956