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• 1 2021-11-03T13:50:38-07:00 How was this made? 21 plain 2023-01-13T06:55:18-08:00 By Brooke Hendershott '23
  
  
  
  This statue is made primarily of copper gilt. The core of the priest, base, and relic tube would have been cast as separate pieces from copper. A model of the final piece would have been made out of clay or wax, and then cast by being submerged in layers of plaster. Then the plaster would be broken open and the clay or wax would be removed to leave a two part mold. This mold was then secured and filled with molten copper and left to cool. When the plaster mold is removed, this process yields a solid copper piece. These pieces would then be soldered or fitted together to create the whole sculpture.
  
  
  
  
  After the assembly, the statue would be gilded. Gilding is the process of giving a piece of art a thin layer of gold or gold colored surfacing. There are three ways to accomplish this with copper. One way would be to use a gold paint. The pure metal could be shaved into very small pieces and then ground into an oil binder to produce a metallic paint that would be brushed onto the surface of the statue to make a coating. Another option is gold leafing: where very thin sheets of copper would be applied to the statue surface with a glue to hold it on. The last, most common with metal, and longest lasting option is to put the statue into an oven until it is almost red hot, then burnish, or polish by rubbing, gold or copper leaf onto the surface of the very hot statue. 
  
  Finally, there was originally brightly colored enameling on the relic tube. This is champlevé enamel: a technique that was developed in France in the 12th century. This enameling technique is done by making wells or grooves in the metal through carving, hammering, or casting and then filling those areas with an enamel powder. This powder-filled piece is then fired in an oven where the enamel will liquify and fuse to the metal. Once done, the tube caps would have been polished, fitted to the glass tube containing the relic, and then secured to the gilded statue to complete the reliquary.
  
  
  This method is in contrast to other metal works in the show such as the So-called Crusader's Bowl
  
• 1 2021-11-03T13:49:20-07:00 What is this? 13 plain 2022-12-22T08:09:34-08:00 By Brooke Hendershott '23
  
  This statue is a reliquary -- a piece of art that holds a relic. The figure of a priest holds a small glass tube, within which is a fragment of an arm bone supposedly from the Christian saint Macarius of Egypt.Christian relics are the remains of holy people or holy objects, most commonly the body parts of saints or objects that belonged to Jesus, such as the crown of thorns. Objects such as the crown of thorns or Mary's shroud are seen as inherently holy because of their direct connection to foundational figures of Christianity.
  
  In early Christian history, relics were a way to celebrate the sacrifices martyrs made for their faith. After Christianity was legalized, relics were also derived from saints and other holy people who were not killed as martyrs. Against theological doctrine, some zealous believers thought that the bodies of the saints held their holiness even after death, leading to body part veneration. Bodies were moved from simple graves to special tombs or churches so pilgrims could more easily access particular saints' relics. Water, oil, or fabric were also brought into contact with relics to make "secondary" relics, like the liquid that filled this pilgrim's ampulla, also from Egypt. Sometimes saints' bodies were stolen and used to legitimize churches and leaders.
  
  In 1204, crusaders sacked Constantinople, the capital of the Orthodox Christian Byzantine empire. Constantinople housed many hundreds of Christian relics in exquisitely made reliquaries. The crusader takeover destabilized the Byzantine empire and enabled the foundation of a crusader empire, known as the Latin Empire, based in Constantinople. As the empire's revenue declined precipitously, crusader emperors were driven to sell their massive stash of relics to try to keep the government afloat. The rare and impressive Byzantine collection of relics was dispersed throughout Europe, giving relics increased presence and value as symbols of religious legitimacy for individuals as well as institutions.
• 1 2021-11-03T13:50:10-07:00 Why was this made and how was it used? 13 plain 2022-12-22T08:26:29-08:00 By Brooke Hendershott '23
  
  
  
  Relics such as this sliver of a saint's arm bone needed reliquaries to keep them safe and to honor their significance to owners or pilgrims. Reliquaries like this priest were often made for a specific church to be used in masses or on feast days. The gold color that originally covered the statue would have glittered in the sun or candlelight, providing a divine aura for the relic.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  This priest appears to have specifically cast or repurposed for this arm bone relic. If relics were taken from a previous collection, they were often kept in their original reliquaries, as the exotic quality of the art's craftsmanship raised its value in its new homeland. The bone of St. Macarius was most likely loose in its original resting place in Egypt, so it needed to be made a reliquary once it arrived in France. The composition of the statue draws focus to the relic and its fine fabric wrappings, and the enameling that was originally present on the relic tube would have made its bright colors stand out even more against the metallic surface of the rest of the statue. 
• 1 2021-11-03T13:51:42-07:00 Where did this go? 7 plain 2023-01-13T07:10:28-08:00 By Brooke Hendershott '23
  
  The recorded provenance of this statue is limited.  In 1893 this sculpture was in a private Paris collection. It left France in 1938 and was brought to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  
  However, the relic inside the glass tube may have traveled a lot. The relic, if it is from St. Macarius, originated from Egypt.  When this saint died, his body was taken from his grave by the residents of his village of Shabsheer and was placed into a grand church in his honor. Eventually the saint's body was confiscated by Pope Michael V and returned to the Nitrian Desert before he split the body up to be made into many body part relics. Through the centuries, these body part relics could have been adopted into a collection or into the private possession of anyone in any of the Crusading areas around the Holy Land. At some point, the relic's owner wrapped it in a piece of fine cloth.  The relic and cloth were inserted into this sculpture in France.
• 1 2021-11-03T13:52:10-07:00 What does this tell us about the Crusades? 7 plain 2023-01-13T07:34:23-08:00 By Brooke Hendershott '23
  
  This sculpture of a priest holding a reliquary teaches us two important things about the Crusades: it shows the importance of relics as proof of successful trips to the eastern Mediterranean, and it stands as a reminder that the history of early Christianity is more diverse than some might imagine.
  
  The cult of relics dates back to early Christianity. Through relics, believers could connect to the inspirational figures they had lost and preserve their holiness through veneration. This core of the practice never changed. Though the definition of who left relics, what constituted a relic (primary, secondary, tertiary), and how exactly they were displayed changed over time, the core ideal of veneration of saints through their earthly remains lives on.
  During the Crusades, relics were more mobile than ever before, with a flood of them making their way into western Europe. There, they were either preserved in their valued original reliquaries or, if they were brought back loose, lovingly made new reliquaries of the finest materials. Some relics and their reliquaries also functioned as status symbol for the elite. Some were stolen and sold. However, this does not devalue their use as important and meaningful tools of celebration of the Christian faith.
  
  
  Christianity, of course, is not limited to Europe; it originated in the Middle East and had important early centers in North Africa. The mummy portraits of Roman Egypt as well as Byzantine icons help us to imagine the faces of people who were a part of this history. Saint Macarius was from Shabsheer, a village not far northwest of modern-day Cairo. He is considered one of the fathers of monasticism, and his monastery still stands to this day, populated by monks. He is a saint in the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox Churches, with icons of him still around today. While he may not be at the forefront of current Catholic education, he was important enough to one medieval individual to bring a sliver of his fabric-wrapped arm bone back to France to be venerated. At the same time, medieval documents show that many crusaders slaughtered whoever they saw as "other," including non-white Christians. Creating a beautiful reliquary to display the relic of a North African saint, while killing other Christians who came from North Africa, suggests that there was a kind of cognitive dissonance occurring for some medieval western Europeans.  This reliquary reminds us of the diverse history of Christianity across multiple continents, including North Africa.