Silver-gilt standing pyx, Spanish (possibly Aragon), ca. 1550.

Consisting of a hinged oval container engraved with masks and mermen which sits on a baluster-shaped stem rising from a domed base which is supported on six claw feet. Two branches rise up from the stem either side of the container, each supporting a figure of an angel holding a candlestick. The cross fixed into the lid of the container is a later edition.

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.

This object would have been used for worship in a Roman Catholic church. A pyx is a container for the Sacred Host, the bread that miraculously becomes the body of Christ when consecrated by a priest during the service of Mass. This central ceremony of the Catholic church is a re-enactment of the Last Supper, in which Christ shared bread and wine with his disciples, saying ‘This is my body and blood’.

The Host is stored in a pyx until required for the Mass or displayed in the window of a monstrance for worshippers to gaze at. When not in use, this pyx might have been kept in a tabernacle, which was sometimes set into the altar. Small, portable pyxes were used for visiting the sick at home.

The design of this pyx follows earlier medieval models, with figures of angels standing on branches either side of the lidded compartment. The engraved decoration is fashionable for the second half of the 16th century and playful in spirit. Mermen with long scaly tails frame the keyhole, alongside masks and grotesque creatures.

M.258-1956