Perfume-burner in the form of a church with cupolas

This very distinctive object is in the form of a small square building whose projecting corners are surmounted by four pyramidal roofs. The four sides terminate in projecting apses crowned by small cupolas. The central part is surmounted by a higher, detachable cupola, crowned by a lantern with a gallery of arches. The object’s opening, a double-leaf door, is located on one of the rounded ends. Two handles, whose fixture points are in the form of heads of bearded men, were probably used to transport it. The entire structure of the edifice rests on a narrower base.

The entire surface of the silver gilt object is very richly decorated. The upper parts are covered with leaf and floral motifs, palmettes, and decorative scrollwork, and the lower parts are decorated with animal motifs (griffins, lions, mermaids, and centaurs). The leaves of the door are decorated with two haloed personifications, which are identifiable by the inscriptions: Bravery (ANDRIAA), in the form of a warrior with a helmet holding a lance and shield, and Intelligence (H FRONHSHS) in the form of a woman dressed in a short tunic and a long skirt, with her hand raised towards her forehead.

The purpose of the object remains unclear. However, in the thirteenth century it had been used as a reliquary for one of the most important relics in the treasury: the Holy Blood (the relic of the ‘miraculous blood’, believed to have been discharged from a figure of Christ on the Cross after it had been struck by an infidel in Beirut in 320). The first inventory of the Treasury of Saint Mark’s (drawn up in 1283) lists a church-shaped silver object containing a rock crystal capsule that held the relic of the Holy Blood. The capsule was part of a group of relics sent by the Doge Enrico Dandolo from Constantinople to Venice in 1204, and was miraculously saved from the fire in the sanctuary of Saint Mark’s Church in 1231. The domed object containing the capsule is listed in subsequent inventories in the nineteenth century.

The presence of five cupolas on the object in the Treasury of Saint Mark’s has often led researchers to believe that it was a miniature reproduction of the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople, whose central dome was surrounded by four smaller domes.  This theory is also supported by the representation of the scene of the Ascension in the Homilies of James of Kokkinobaphos (Paris BNF gr. 1208 fol. 3v). Nevertheless, it is better to interpret it as an idealistic representation of the Ecclesia (general assembly of Athenian citizens) rather than the reproduction of a specific Byzantine church.

This object, in the form of a domed edifice, is also very similar to a series of objects that were used as incense-burners or as portable lamps in processions. They were given the name ‘Sion’ or ‘Jerusalem’, in reference to celestial Jerusalem. However, the extensive openwork on the object’s surface may lead one to believe that the object in Saint Mark’s treasury was used for the same liturgical purposes as the other objects, but this theory is invalidated by the secular nature of the decorations. The ornamental and animal motifs and the presence of personifications suggest that it is a secular masterpiece that was probably used as a perfume-burner.