Aquamanile
- Place of origin:
Hildesheim (Probably, made)
- Date:
- Artist/Maker:
- Materials and Techniques:
- Museum number:
- Gallery location:
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An aquamanile is a vessel used used during Mass or at the secular table for washing hands. These ewers were very popular in the medieval period and took forms such as lions, knights on horseback, dragons and birds (in Latin the word aqua means water and manus means hand).
This aquamanile is expertly crafted. In the skill of the design, such as the detail of the lion's mane and the beautifully depicted dragon handle, it can be regarded as a forerunner of the Renaissance small bronze, which was designed to be appreciated from all sides.
This piece bears a close similarity to the large bronze lion cast for Henry the Lion (1129-1195), Duke of Brunswick in 1166. It has closer stylistic similarities to the lion head on the symbol of John the Evangelist on the font in Hildesheim Cathedral, cast around 1215-20. It is likely that both the font and the aquamanile were cast at Hildesheim around this time.
Physical description
Bronze aquamanile in the form of a standing lion with a full mane. His head turns to one side and he holds his tail between his legs. The handle takes the form of dragon, clinging to the beast's back. Water was filled though a small hole covered with a lid at the top of the lion's head and poured using a spout behind the left ear of the beast. The spout has subsequently been removed and the hole filled in. This vessel was cast using the lost wax method (cire-perdue).
Place of Origin
Hildesheim
Date
1215-1230 (made)
Artist/maker
Unknown
Materials and Techniques
Bronze
Dimensions
Height: 27.5 cm
Width: 26.2 cm
Depth: 13.2 cm
Weight: 3.9 kg
Measured for the Medieval and Renaissance Galleries
Object history note
Purchase. Acquired from Cav. Attilo Simonetti. Note on acquisition says 'portion detached and other portion missing'. It is not certain to which parts of the object this note refers.
Vessels for Church and Table Exhibition RF.2005/738
This object was probably made in a bronze casting workshop at Hildesheim, Germany.
Historical context note
An aquamanile (aqua= water, manus=hand), is a vessel used for washing hands. These ewers were very popular in the medieval period and took forms such as lions, knights on horseback, dragons and birds. Aquamaniles were used during the mass or at the secular table.This aquamanile, despite its stylistic similarities to a bronze font in Hildesheim Cathedral, was a secular object. It would have been used by a wealthy person at the dinner table and it was probably an object to be admired by guests.
Descriptive line
Bronze aquamanile in the form of a standing Lion, Lower Saxony, 1215-1230
Labels and date
An aquamanile (from aqua=water and manus= hand) was a ewer, used in conjunction with a basin, which served for washing the hands aither at the dining table, or during the Mass. This was originally filled through a hole at the top of the lion's head, and the water poured through a hole at the top of the lion's left ear; both apertures have subsequently been filled in. Large numbers werer made between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries in various shapes- unicorns, dragons, lions birds and figures on horse-back.
Materials
Bronze
Techniques
Cire perdue
Subjects depicted
Dragon; Lions
Categories
Metalwork; Containers
Collection code
MET
