Relics, reliquaries, and the limitations of trecento painting: Naddo Ceccarelli's Reliquary Tabernacle in the Walters Art Museum

Abstract

Throughout the Middle Ages, reliquaries were typically the special domain of the goldsmith, the artisan whose work was three-dimensional, architectural and precious. By the fourteenth century, however, the development of gold ground painting in Italy and the widespread circulation of relics in Europe fostered the creation of new categories of sacred containers.1 Particularly in Siena, renowned for its goldsmiths, enamellers and painters, a variety of novel reliquary forms emerged. The producers of these objects relied on materials traditionally associated with panel painting, but borrowed both their forms and their visual language from works in other media. In his Il Libra dell'Arte, Cennino Cennini described the adornment of such reliquaries as ‘a branch of great piety’, a clear indicator of the special status he attributed to these vessels.2 Compilers of fourteenth-century inventories listed ‘reliquiere di legno “lavorate a oro”’ among the contents of Sienese treasuries.3 This terminology, with its explicit reference to fashioned gold, succinctly described their integration of wood, relics and precious surface effects. The incorporation of sacred relics into panel paintings, particularly those featuring Narian imagery, responded to the devotional requirements of both private and institutional patrons.4 Their clear glass windows, painted surfaces and gilded architecture evoked the appearance of sacred shrines fashioned from rock crystal, enamels and precious metals.5