Silver-gilt and enamel, Southern Netherlands, dated 1524

Chalice of silver-gilt, the knop set with bosses of dark blue enamel on silver and inscribed "IHESVS". The foot is engraved with figures of St. Peter, St. Paul and St. Augustine and is further enriched with applied groups of St. Anne and the Virgin and Child with St. Joseph and St. Joachim, St. George and the Dragon and a figure of St. James the Greater. Inscribed: "ARNOLD ZWOLL COROT (Arnold, curate of Zwoll) ANNA.DNI.M.CCCCC.XXIIII". It stands on a six lobed foot on a band of openwork foliage from a broad flange, with a bunch of cutwork leaves set in each angle. The six pieces of the foot are occupied alternately by the engraved and applied subjects named above, each surmounted by a canopy of Gothic tracery. The foot finishes at the top in an architectural cresting. The knop is six sided, decorated with Gothic tracery (pierced above, engraved below) and borne on a six sided stem with a collar of openwork quatrefoils above and below. The bowl is conoidal in shape and set in a calyx of foliage cast in openwork. The engraved figures stand within arches of Renaissance style.

Given by J. B. Carrington

A chalice was used during the Mass to serve the consecrated wine. Its form and ornament usually reflect current artistic styles and religious practice. This elaborate example appears to be one of two commissioned by Arnold of Zwolle for the church of Kaizerwertz in the Rhineland. It is decorated with pierced trelliswork in the highly elaborate late Gothic style and engraved on the foot with various saints.

354-1907