EUCHARISTIC CHEST OR CASKET. POLYCHROMED WOOD. SPAIN, 16TH CENTURY.

Chest. Carved and polychrome wood. Spain, 16th century. Carved, gilded and polychrome wooden chest with a rectangular base and upper part in the shape of a gable or trough roof (with the smaller sides straight and not inclined); It opens when going down on the front, revealing the polychrome and gilding of the interior. On the outside, the piece presents a painted decoration: on the smaller sides two male figures on a gold background flanked by fine balustraded columns and under a decoration reminiscent of cloth; The front has simple architectural elements carved in light relief, leaving the semicircular arch for a Virgen de la Leche; The back has a composition based on plant elements in “ce”, volutes, winged children, masks, scrolls, etc., with a clear classicist influence; The upper part of the piece has a decoration similar to that of the bottom on all its fronts except the front, where you can clearly see an inscription in Latin capital letters inspired by Antiquity framed by a band with scrolls and plant elements. On the sides appear Saint Peter with the keys and Saint Paul holding the sword in his arms that alludes to his martyrdom. Both the faces and the postures of the characters and the architectural elements show a clear relationship with stylistic novelties, while the golden background is a common detail in the Spanish school since the Gothic period. Decoration based on plant elements, scrolls, etc. present in several areas of the chest, which has already been mentioned, is known as grotesques, and stands out for its classicist influence, for not presenting a strictly symmetrical organization in all the panels in which it is found, and for its compositional quality. The grotesque is a very common decorative motif in art since the “discovery” (15th century) in the Domus Aurea in Rome of ancient paintings with plant elements, cornucopias, panoplies, human and theriomorphic figures, mythological beings, etc. arranged in usually symmetrical compositions. The Virgin Mary is presented breastfeeding the Child, hence this iconography is known as the Virgin of Milk. Regarding the inscription (“O SACRV CONBIBIVM IN QUO written by Saint Thomas Aquinas and included in the traditional Catholic liturgy in the festival of Corpus Christi, with forms in Gregorian chant and musical compositions written by prominent teachers such as Tomás Luis de Victoria, Palestrina, Pergolesi, etc. All these details mentioned and the fact that the chest opens with a folding front “lid” would indicate the creation of the piece to contain and display a monstrance with the Sacred Form or some similar liturgical element of great importance. Compare it with pieces such as the chest coming, perhaps, from Valladolid, and dated to the 16th century that is in the Casa Natal de Cervantes Museum (Alcalá de Henares, Madrid), the oak wood chest dated around 1300 from the Museum of Decorative Arts of Madrid with the polychrome exterior, or the Eurcharistic chest that the same museum preserves of Valencian origin and dated towards the last third of the 14th century (thus proving the long tradition of the typology of the present piece), etc.

· Size: 27x20x24 cms.