Silver-gilt filigree, Spain, ca.1600-50

Silver-gilt, filigree crucifix with a central figure of the crucified Christ above a flaming heart. Rays of sun radiate out from behind the cross around Christ's head. At the top is a suspension hoop.

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.

This crucifix may have been suspended from a rosary, a chain of beads used by Catholic worshippers as an aide-memoire to help count through a sequence of prayers. It was modelled on a celebrated and much larger crucifix in Burgos, a Spanish city on the pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostela.

Filigree work consists of silver wire twisted into intricate patterns. It was first made in Spain by medieval Islamic goldsmiths and was revived in the 17th century, when this piece was made.

98-1864