The Innocents or Apostle monstrance from the treasury of Basle Munster

Description

This outstanding work is the earliest of the reliquary monstrances from the treasury of Basle Munster. Its design utilises a full repertoire of architectural forms from the transition to Late Gothic typical of the Upper Rhine area. The eight lobed foot carries an octagonal stem consisting of base, shaft and chapel like knop. Bunches of oak leaves lead up to the main element, shaped like a miniature altarpiece, where the round relic holder is housed beneath a graceful tracery gable with crockets and finial and flanking three sided pinnacles. Its splendour is further enhanced by the rich use of translucent enamel in the basse taille images. Those on the quatrefoil medallions of the base show events from the Infancy of Christ, including the Massacre of the Innocents, and also St Columba. The Irish monk St Columba is present because he had formerly owned the relics of one of the Innocents of Bethlehem that the reliquary once contained. The alternative name of the monstrance derives from the two series of figures of apostles, one on the knop and the other in the ring of enamel medallions around the circular ostensory. The reliquary is likely to have been remodelled as a monstrance for the Eucharistic host around 1450, when the more modest reverse was slightly modified.