Silver-gilt, Spain, Burgos, ca.1525

Monstrance in the form of a two-tiered hexagonal tower with a spire peirced with arabesque ornament and Instruments of the Passion (symbols associated with Christ's crucifixion), surmounted by a cross. The tower is decorated with architectural buttresses and with traceried windows, two of which are open to display the Sacred Host. Midway down the hexagonal stem is a two-tiered knop echoing the design of the tower on a smaller scale. The eight-lobed foot is chased and embossed with foliage and a representation of St Martin and the Beggar.

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.

Architecture inspired the designs of much medieval and 16th century Spanish church silver. This monstrance of about 1525 resembles a late medieval building in miniature, complete with arched windows, buttresses and a spire. It was made for a Catholic church to display the Sacred Host, bread which in Catholic belief miraculously transforms into the body of Christ when consecrated by a priest during the service of Mass. On the foot is an image of St Martin compassionately dividing his cloak with a shivering beggar, a popular subject in Christian art of this period.

142-1882