Holy Thorn Reliquary Holy Thorn Reliquary (made in Paris for Jean, Duc de Berry), c. 1390s, gold, enamel, ruby, pearl, sapphire, and rock crystal, 30 x 14.2 x 6.8 cm (British Museum, London) Speakers: Pippa Couch and Rachel Ropeik
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- we are at the british museum, standing in front of
- the holy thorn reliquary, which was commissioned
- by John, Duke of Berry in 1390s in Paris
- and this is quite a piece of work.
- it´s exquisite and there is an awful lot of detail here.
- We´ve just started right from the bottom of it up.
- We got the city in gold
- and it´s a four cornered city
- it represents the four corners of the world
- and there is an angel at each corner
- blowing a trumpet, and around that
- we have this green hill, with four tombs,
- with people are rising out of that and looking out.
- above that we´ve got the central panel
- which is surrounded by rubies and pearls
- and lots of gold, and there are twelve figurines
- who are the twelve apostles picked out in an armor in gold
- surrounding the central panel.and right
- in the centre, we have Christ sitting in majesty,
- with his feet on the globe. And above that
- at the very top, we've got the Father,
- and then there are these two saphires. They are the only two saphires in the whole piece.
- One is at the very very top above God the Father
- and the other one is i the middle of
- this window , where the Christ figure is sitting
- and this is 2 inch long piece of wood jotting up
- into Christ and Cchrist is sitting on a rainbow
- and right above Christ there are these two little angels holding a tiny tiny cramapones above his head
- what and that is connected to this spike coming out of where the saphire is.
- It is supposedly one of the thorns that came from
- the crown of thorns.
- We will see it at the reliquary here.
- The idea of reliquary in the middle ages
- is really important because it was these physical objects
- which were sometimes body parts of saints.
- in this case it is a thorn from the crown of thorns
- these objects were used as focussors of spiritual contemplation
- well we're really looking here where relics began
- because Christ died on a cross and he rouse into heaven. So,
- he left nothing behind. So all the relics that are connected to Christ
- are things like the crown of thorns or pieces of the true cross
- that are material memory, and of course we have no way of proving
- whether this was in fact a thorn, from the crown of thorn
- worn by christ when he was crucified.
- No. But that wasn't the point. The idea was you believed in these objects
- and so we insisted to pray in the presence of these objects
- was to give extra power and special access
- to heaven. Christ and the Passion of all this happened within the Roman Empire.
- The crown of thorn was discovered by Constantine´s mother,
- the Empress Helena. He went on pilgrimage,
- and she found the crown of thorns and the true cross as well.
- these were taken by Constantinople and it´s said the Bizantine empire had all
- of the power which of course this is what made the rest of the world
- extremely jealous of the power that Constantinople had and thats why they came
- and sacked Constantinople and thats when these things got taken away
- Tis reliquary started with one of the french kings
- Louise the ninth, who as he saw it rescued the crown and brought it to paris
- and then the gratest gift that he could give to anyone,
- would be to take one of the thorns and make a gift of it.
- and thats what he did here. it is spiritual but
- its so circulous to control because if
- someone gives you a gift of something thats
- so close to christ that is ever placeable, so here we thought
- John, Duke de Pari, who s is one of the french Dukes
- and its such an important gift for both religious and political reasons
- and he has made this incredible case to House
- this one relic. and you see the story of the last Judgement
- its not whats going on here.these angels at the bottom are trumpeting
- to wake people up to see the dead rising out of their coffins
- from the four corners of the earth.and in the centre there is the scene of christ enthroned.
- and its important for the relicary because with the out of all this gold and saphires and pearls
- and all this paraphernilia around it , how do you know about it.
- you know what it is by casing a hole set and keep out.the time will have itswell for this is not an audience
- who is litereate. what you mostly got is the story being told by the object itself
- and people would have been to church and heard these stories
- the stories of the last judgement and christ enthroned. it is like a picture book
- for an audience looking at this at the time
- regardlessof all that gold back and any of those roles
- the most valuable object is this entire piece is not one
- bit of thorn that has to swab the blood of christ upon it
- there is so much tiny tiny detail in the way
- that everything is made in the hair, in the beards,
- the carving of the leaves. if you look at the two nailing fingers of christ feet
- the way that their carving has been picked out
- and the individual fingers that you can see and the praying hands
- it is a really nice combination of both.an object of faith and a beautiful object of craftsmanship.
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