Title

Chalice of abbot Pelagius Fernandiz

Anonimous

Generic classification

Object

Date

Century

Cultural context / style

Material

Technique

Iconography / Theme

Provenance

Current location

Inventory Number in Current Collection

Inscriptions / Marks

Inscription in Visigothic script with Carolingian influence at the foot of the chalice:

+PELAGIVS : ABBAS : ME : FECIT : AD HONOREM : S(an)C(t)I : IACOBI : AP(osto)LI.

Abbot Pelagius made me in honor of the apostle St. James.

Object history

In the church of Santiago in Peñalba de Santiago from its creation until the 19th century.

In 1876 in possession of Juan Ignacio Moreno y Maisanove, archbishop of Toledo.

Paris, Charles M. Stein's collection from 1878 to 1886.

Acquired by the Louvre Museum in 1886.

Description

The chalice has a truncated cone-shaped base with a slightly concave profile, followed by an openwork knot with intertwined vegetal decoration that leaves four free losanges in which the Tetramorphos is shown; the cup is hemispherical and smooth. The piece presents a refined design of great elegance by contrasting the opposing curved forms of the base and the cup, without figurative decoration except in the central knot, which thanks to its openwork creates suggestive effects of transparency and chiaroscuro. At the same time the gilded parts draw attention to the shape of the chalice itself and its most important areas, the upper rim, the molded base, the inscription, the knot and, of course, the inside of the cup, details that make it one of the masterpieces of Romanesque goldsmithing from León.

The shape of the piece and the goldsmith's work recall late 6th century Byzantine prototypes such as the Riha chalice (Washington DC, Dumbarton Oaks BZ.1955.18) or the Ganay chalice in the Musée du Louvre in Paris (OA 11311) and even the silhouette seems to be inspired by that of the chalice of Doña Urraca from the monastery of San Isidoro de León (c. 1090), rather than by Irish art, as has sometimes been claimed. It is also true that the structure is relatively simple and is perpetuated until the 13th century in the work of Mosan goldsmiths, who show important concomitances with the piece from Santiago de Peñalba, such as the chalice in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (47.101.30), signed by Brother Bertinus in 1222. The success of this type of production is attested to by the fact that similar pieces appear in areas not too far away, such as the chalice of San Rosendo in the cathedral of Ourense, from the monastery of Celanova, or the chalice of the church of O Cebreiro, although they do not reach the refinement and quality of the Leonese specimen.

The piece was published for the first time in 1875 by Amador de los Ríos who indicated his frustration by stating that (p. 634) "Scarce are to the truth, the news that we have been given to collect regarding this monument of Spanish goldsmithing during the Middle Ages, despite the diligence that in the investigation of the indispensable background have shown the people of the most intimate confidence of His Eminence Cardinal Primate of Spain. Reduced to the single fact that it comes from Astorga, it has not been possible to know the place in which it was found, nor to give rise, therefore, to the exposition of our investigations, by means of which could be explained, if there were any, the vicissitudes that the CHALICE and the Paten, memorized, experienced when passing from the temple to which they were specially dedicated, to the one in which they have remained until becoming the property of the Metropolitan of Toledo". However, thanks to the inscription and the documentation published on the diocese of Astorga in the Middle Ages, he was able to deduce correctly that the chalice and paten must have come from the monastery of Peñalba de Santiago (p. 637). Regarding the dating, the author proposed a date at the end of the 11th or beginning of the 12th century (p. 636), thinking of the bishop of Astorga Don Pelayo (p. 638) as his possible patron, but also pointing out the possibility that it was Pelayo Fernández, abbot of Santiago de Peñalba in 1132 (p. 639), an option that is currently accepted. The dedication to the apostle is important, since very few objects of the period in Spain have it, being precisely the cross that Ramiro II offered to the church of Peñalba de Santiago in 940 (Museum of León) one of them.

The work was acquired in 1886 by the Louvre Museum, which did not yet have among its collections a goldsmith's chalice, stating Émile Molinier in 1888 that it was "one of the most elegant that it is given to see; it is a model worthy of being recommended to modern goldsmiths" (p. 308), but despite the text of Amador de los Ríos the author claimed to be unaware of the provenance of the work beyond its Spanish origin, indicating that the name Pelayo was common in Galicia and Asturias.

The quality and relevance of the piece were well known and Manuel Gómez Moreno in his monumental catalog of the province of León lamented its absence from its original location by recalling that the temple was missing (fol. 191 v.) "its cross, a gift of Ramiro II, today in the Museum of León; its chalice of Abbot Pelagio, which is in the Louvre; the naveta of Limoges that Mr. Giner de los Ríos managed to see, and God knows how much more."

A copy of the chalice was made in 2000-2006 by the silversmith José Manuel Santos Martínez, and is kept in the Basilica of Nuestra Señora de la Encina in Ponferrada.

Locations

• XII^th c. - XIX^th c.

  church

  Iglesia de Santiago, Peñalba de Santiago (Spain)

• 1876 - 1878

  private collection

  Juan Ignacio Moreno y Maisanove (Spain) *

• 1878 - 1886

  private collection

  Charles M. Stein, Paris (France) *

• present

  museum

  Louvre Museum, Paris (France)