Arm Reliquary of Saint Pantaleon

Description This silver arm is known as a "speaking" reliquary because it takes shape of the body part it once contained. The reliquary reputedly held an arm bone of Saint Pantaleon, a "Holy Doctor" martyred in Asia Minor (AD 305) who later became the patron saint of physicians. The remains of an inscription along the seam of the sleeve refer to the saint by name. The small door with the two glass shields was added in the 15th century, as was the crystal at the edge of the sleeve.

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
2/01/1948	Treatment	cleaned; coated
12/01/1984	Treatment	cleaned
6/03/1987	Examination	other
3/28/1994	Treatment	cleaned
10/07/1998	Examination	x-ray; technical study

Exhibitions

• Secrets of Our Own. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. 0.
• A Medieval Treasury from Southern Collections. Ackland Art Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill. 1961.
• Reliquaries and Ritual: Medieval Objects of Devotion. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1984-1985.
• Treasures of Heaven. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland; The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; The British Museum, London. 2010-2011.

Provenance A. Tollin, Paris; Chevallier & Mannheim, Paris, May 20, 1897, no. 79; Robert Hoe, New York; American Art Association, New York, February 15, 1911, no. 1813; Wareham Harding, New York; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1920, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Inscriptions [Transcription] Incomplete inscription in niello on the narrow silver strip ornamenting the seam of the sleeve: [DE...SANCT]I PANTALEONIS + AVE; [Translation] From Pantaleon, greetings.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters, 1920