Chalice

Description Enamels with bust-length figures of sainted bishops appear on the cup. Depictions of Christ as the Man of Sorrows (Christ with the wounds of his Passion), the Virgin, and John the Evangelist are on the base. The portraits of bishops connected the priest who used the cup to his sacred predecessors. The figure of the dead Christ alludes directly to the object's function as a vessel for sacramental wine, which, according to the Catholic Church, was transformed during the Mass into the blood of Christ.

Conservation

Cleaned to reduce silver tarnish and copper corrosion; coated to prevent future tarnish/corrosion.

Date	Description	Narrative
12/31/1969	Examination	examined for condition
12/31/1969	Treatment	Cleaned
2/18/1954	Treatment	cleaned
8/24/1964	Treatment	cleaned; coated
8/24/1964	Treatment	coated
10/07/2002	Treatment	cleaned; coated
1/23/2004	Treatment	cleaned; other
1/10/2005	Examination	examined for loan

Exhibitions

• The Book of Kings: Art, War, and the Morgan Library's Medieval Picture Bible. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; Academy Art Museum, Easton; Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton; The Mitchell Gallery, Annapolis; Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown. 2002.

Provenance Geheimrat R. von Passavant; Arnold Seligmann, Rey and Company [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, July, 1931 [mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters, 1931