Reliquary casket

This reliquary casket consists of four rock-crystal plates carved in Fatimid Egypt and a gold mounting of German origin. Each plate is decorated with animals. On the side with the clasp, two ibexes lying down face each other and are divided by a central fleuron; there are two gazelles on the opposite side of the casket. The right side is ornamented with a cervid with a coiled tail and the left side is decorated with a quadruped whose head was removed during the recutting process.

The mounting—a wooden base with a gilded silver leaf finish—forms a luxurious casing around the casket. It is ornamented with filigree tendrils with pearled ends that contain many semi-precious stones. Two cabochon ivory stones are engraved with angels. An oval rock-crystal forms a dome on the lid. Small columns placed on the corners accentuate the architectural aspect of the goldwork.

Before it became part of the collection in the Cluny Museum (Paris), the work was kept in the treasury of Saint-Pierre Cathedral in Moûtiers, located deep in the Tarentaise valley (in the Savoie département). Moûtiers, a bishopric on the banks of the river Isère, was an important stopping point on pilgrimage routes in the Middle Ages. It was also a commercial centre that linked Milan with French towns in the Rhone Valley. The Tarentaise valley was part of Lotharingia, and became part of the Holy Roman Empire in 1033. It was subsequently restored to the counts, and then the dukes of Savoie. It is therefore not surprising that the cathedral in Moûtiers had a rock-crystal casket on a German gold mounting[1]. Rock-crystal reached the Latin West at the beginning of the eleventh century. It is known that the Ottonian Emperors maintained relations with the Fatimid caliphs. These quartz objects tended to be more common in the Germanic countries than in France.

A brief look at the carved decorative work tells us that it is principally derived from works produced in Mesopotamia and pre-Islamic Persia. It was often used in Fatimid Egypt. However, the Christianization—the mounting—of the object is interesting. Richly coated in gems, it is characteristic of German work in around 1200. Many German works have this type of incrustation on pearled tendrils[2]. By using jewels in this way, goldsmiths expressed something that was connected with the new cult of the Magi. These Kings, who came from the East, were the first—after the shepherds from Bethlehem—to pay homage to the Infant Jesus (the Gospel of Mathew 2: 11), by placing gold, myrrh, and incense at his feet. Gold traditionally symbolized royalty, incense was a symbol of priestship, and myrrh symbolized sacrifice. In the past, the containers that housed these offerings took the form of simple bowls (mosaics of Ravenna). From the eighth century onwards—probably due to a new form of worship—they took the form of vases used in the ritual of the Mass or sumptuous reliquaries placed in church treasuries. Pyxides and turret-shaped containers were therefore associated with the offering of myrrh and incense, while caskets were associated with the offering of gold. This has, of course, been a popular theme in Western art. This is probably the intended purpose of this small casket, integrated into a mounting that has no connection to its size, but which  evokes the splendour of the Magi and may have contained something associated with the Epiphany.