Pre-Reliquary Baptism

Religion and pilgrimage to holy sites was developed into an integral part of the society during the 12th century. The Christian believed in the resurrection of Christ and the afterlife that depended on the actions of an individual over the course of their lifetime. In order to gain salvation Christians at the time made pilgrimages to holy sites in order to please their God and attain salvation from hell and find a place in the abode of God; the heavens. As the favored place of pilgrimage was Jerusalem, the unsafe path and the costs of travel discouraged many Christians from taking that route and forced them towards the Way of Saint James shrine located in the Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela. The pilgrimage was made to pay their respect …show more content…
In this technique, you first would engrave the design on the soft copper of the pre-reliquary chasse depicting the life of the saint whose relic was suppose to be contained within it along with other symbols that were associated to the saint. Engraving out the copper to construct the design would enable the metal worker to add the enamel into the carved out spots to produce the brightly colored designs. Enamel was powdered glass that came in different colors. In order to add the enamel onto the copper base, they would need to first crush the glass into power-like consistency and add water to form a liquid. They would then purify the colored enamel liquid to eliminate impurities from it. Using something similar to a modern day paintbrush, like a sharpened quill, the metal worker would color the carved in design with different colored enamels producing the bright colors on the chasse. After the enamel was colored onto the copper, the copper is then placed in a high temperature container called kiln that reaches temperatures of about 1000 degrees Celsius. This allowed for the liquid enamel to solidify and set properly onto the carved designs. It was important to make sure the enamel was burned for the right amount of time because if it were overdone, it would have lead to colors mixing with each other or the colored enamel to completely burn away. After the copper was cooled the entire process …show more content…
1180 and is on exhibition at the Loyola University Museum of Art and is a part of the Martin D’Arcy, S.J. Collection. To begin with we will first look at the chasse in an overview. As we can see the chasse has been constructed out of copper, which indicates it was built to last. The general shape of reliquary is that of a house with the rectangular base and a triangular cover. Above the triangle cover is the crest, which is designed with oval and keyholes. There is a sense of proportionality on either sides of the central oval. There are four keyholes and one oval on the left side of the central oval as well as the right side. The holes were designed to hold valuable gems or crystals. The central oval in this reliquary chasse is missing the cabochon crystal, while the crystals on the other two ovals are still preserved. Therefore, the usage of expensive gems and crystals used to decorate the chasse signified the importance and value of relics. As these reliquary chasses were to be placed in exhibition in medieval churches, their external structure resembled churches of that time period. The structure is upheld by the support of four legs of the base. The legs were also engraved with intricate designs showing the importance of the chasse. On either side the copper is one uniform structure that goes from the base to the bottom of the crest, however the frontal segment is divided allowing the chasse