Reliquary Shrine in the Cloisters, October 2009

Artist: Attributed to Jean de Touyl (French, died 1349)

Title: Reliquary Shrine

Date: second quarter 14th century

Geography: Made in Paris, France

Culture: French

Medium: Gilt-silver, translucent enamel, paint

Dimensions: Overall (open): 10 x 16 x 3 5/8 in. (25.4 x 40.6 x 9.2 cm)

Classification: Enamels-Translucent

Credit Line: The Cloisters Collection, 1962

Accession Number: 62.96

On View at The Cloisters

Description:

This sumptuous reliquary sets the Virgin and Child, accompanied by angels, within an elaborate Gothic architectural shrine. The arches, vaults, and sculptural decorations are of gilded silver; translucent enamel panels on the wings depicting scenes from the life of the Virgin and the Infancy of Christ evoke stained-glass windows. This example, one of only four such shrines to have survived, is recorded in the eighteenth-century inventories of the convent of the Poor Clares of the Order of St. Francis at Buda (part of the modern city of Budapest), founded by Queen Elizabeth of Hungary in 1334.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/collection_database/the_cl...