Displayed on the high altar of Basel Cathedral on important feast days, this reliquary, like others of its classic type, was also used in public processions and for veneration. Such reliquaries not only evoke the memory and presence of a particular person but also communicate the broader idea of a saint's power and grace, embodied in the blessing gesture of the hand.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Reliquary Arm of St. Valentine
Date:14th century
Geography:Made in Basel, Switzerland
Culture:Swiss
Medium:Silver, partial gilt, sapphire
Dimensions:21 3/4 x 7 5/8 x 6 1/4 in. (55.2 x 19.4 x 15.9 cm)
Classification:Metalwork-Silver
Credit Line:Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917
Object Number:17.190.351a, b
Basel Cathedral ; [ Frédéric Spitzer (Austrian), Paris (sold 1893)]; his posthumous sale, Chevallier & Mannheim, Paris (April 17–June 16, 1893, no. 331); [ Godefroy Brauer, Paris (from 1893(]; J. Pierpont Morgan (American), London and New York (until 1917)
McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College. "Memory and The Middle Ages," February 17–May 21, 1995.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Evocative Fragments," February 14–June 14, 1998.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Treasury of Basel Cathedral," February 27–June 3, 2001.
Historisches Museum Basel. "Der Basler Münsterschatz," July 13–October 21, 2001.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Cranach's Saint Maurice," April 20–July 27, 2015.
La Collection Spitzer: Antiquité, Moyen-Age, Renaissance. Vol. I. Mâcon: Imprimerie Protat Frères, 1890–1891. Orfèvrerie religieuse 124, p. 137.
Spitzer, Frédéric, ed. La Collection Spitzer: Antiquité -- Moyen-Age -- Renaissance. Vol. 1. Paris: Maison Quantin, 1890–1893. Orfèvrerie religieuse 124, p. 135, ill. in text.
Catalogue des objets d'art et de haute curiosité: antiques, du moyen-âge & de la renaissance: composant l'importante et précieuse Collection Spitzer. Vol. 1. Paris: Chevallier and Mannheim, April 17–June 16, 1893. no. 331, p. 60, pl. V.
Guide to the Loan Exhibition of the J. Pierpont Morgan Collection. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1914. p. 33.
Braun, Joseph. Die Reliquiare des christlichen Kultes und ihre Entwicklung. Freiburg im Breisgau: Verlag Herder, 1940. pp. 393, 404, pl. 123, fig. 467.
Fritz, Johann Michael. Goldschmiedekunst der Gotik in Mitteleuropa. Munich: C. H. Beck, 1982. p. 230, fig. 305.
Netzer, Nancy, and Virginia Reinburg, ed. Memory and the Middle Ages. Chestnut Hill, Mass.: Boston College Museum of Art, 1995. no. 19, p. 103.
Reinburg, Virginia. "Remembering the Saints." In Memory and the Middle Ages, edited by Nancy Netzer, and Virginia Reinburg. Chestnut Hill, Mass.: Boston College Museum of Art, 1995. no. 19, pp. 24–25.
Husband, Timothy B. The Treasury of Basel Cathedral. New York and New Haven: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001. no. 43, pp.116–117.
Berkemeier-Favre, Marie-Claire, Therese Wollmann, Martin Sauter, Sabine Häberli, and Ines Braun-Balzer. Der Basler Münsterschatz: Historisches Museum Basel, edited by Brigitte Meles. Basel: Christoph Merian Verlag, 2001. no. 18, pp. 80–82.
Bolton, Andrew, ed. Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination. Vol. 2. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2018. pp. 300, 314.
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