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Objekt 3159

Apostles Monstrance

Description

The lavish architecture of this monstrance is further embellished with various enamel plaques. The rock-crystal disk that forms the centrepiece is surrounded by enamels of Christ, the Virgin, the Twelve Apostles, and two angels. Those on the foot show Saint Columban and five scenes from the childhood of Christ (the Annunciation, Nativity, Adoration of the Magi, Flight into Egypt, and Massacre of the Innocents). The Twelve Apostles recur in the double windows of the arcaded knop on the stem. The monstrance was used both to display the Host and as a reliquary for a relic of one of the innocents.

Object description

Gilded silver; enamel; rock crystal

Basel, ca. 1345, altered in 1460

1933.159.

Repurchased with public and private contributions

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