Crystal Reliquary

Description This barrel-shaped reliquary is formed of a large, cylindrical piece of crystal bored down the middle to create a narrow compartment for a relic. The rock crystal makes this a type of monstrance (display reliquary) that presents the relic for veneration visibly rather than keeping it hidden from view as in an enamel, church-shaped shrine.

Exhibitions

• 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 Tycon and Smith, Paris, by purchase; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1929, by purchase; Walters Art museum, 1931, by bequest.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters, 1929