Art Institute of Chicago
Circular Reliquary with Domed Roof and Relics of Saints Godehard and Bernward
German, Brunswick (Braunschweig)LinkedCulture matchlcp-b59ef6201b74
- Date
- 1375/1400
- Medium
- Silver gilt and rock crystal
- Culture
- Brunswick
- Department
- Applied Arts of Europe
- Institution
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Object ID
- 29723
From the Art Institute of Chicago record
This reliquary monstrance displaying relics of Saint Anne and of Saints Bernward and Godehard of Hildesheim was part of the so-called Welfenschatz , or Guelph Treasure, from the collegiate church of Saint Blaise in Braunschweig, Germany. This collection of luxury liturgical objects dating from the 11th to the 15th centuries was assembled under the patronage of the Brunons and the Guelphs, families who served as the Dukes of Saxony in the Middle Ages. The treasure remained largely intact into the twentieth century. An inventory drawn up in 1482 listed 140 items, of which around 70 survive today.
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Provenance & credit
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- Credit line
- Gift of Kate S. Buckingham
- Provenance
- The collegiate church of Saint Blaise, Braunschweig [no. 73 in the 1482 inventory of the relic treasure; see Boockmann 1997, p. 142], remaining there along with other treasure objects after the congregation abolished the Catholic service in 1540; Saint Blaise being under the direct patronage of the dukes of Braunschweig-Lüneburg, 1938.1957 was given, together with the bulk of the church’s relic treasure to Duke Johann Friedrich (died 1679) in 1671 as part of a settlement among members of the ducal family [see Jaitner 1986 [1987], pp. 391-92]; by descent in the Hannover branch of the ducal family of Braunschweig-Lüneburg and preserved with the rest of the treasure in the court chapel of the Leineschloss, Hannover; temporarily removed for safe-keeping during the Seven Years War ( from 1757-64) and the Napoleonic Wars (removed 1803-1816) [Jaitner 1986 [1987], p. 393]; in 1862 installed in the Welfenmuseum in the Altenburg-Palais, Hannover, founded by King George V of Hannover (died 1878) [Hannover became a kingdom at the Congress of Vienna 1814/15; for the foundation of the museum, whose name evoked the medieval glory of the Welf or Guelph dynasty, see Jaitner 1986 [1987], pp. 393-98 and de Winter 1985, p. 13]; in 1867, following the annexation of the kingdom of Hannover by Prussia, moved with the bulk of the treasure to the exiled former king’s villa in Hietzing near Vienna; deposited at the Österreichisches Museum für Kunst und Industrie, Vienna, 1869 to 1906 [Jaitner 1986 [1987], pp. 402, 420 n. 59–the former king was styled duke of Cumberland];1906 sent to the duke of Cumberland’s palace in Penzing on the outskirts of Vienna and in 1920 to Schloss Cumberland in Gmunden, Austria [Jaitner 1986 [1987], p. 404]; in November 1927, the treasure was deposited with a bank in Aarau, Switzerland; at the end of 1929 under Ernst August III as head of the house of Hannover, the treasure was sold to a consortium of Frankfurt dealers: Julius Falk Goldschmidt of the firm I. S. Goldscmidt, Zacharias Max Hackenbroch, and Isaak Rosenbaum and Saemy Rosenbaum of the firm J. Rosenbaum [see De Winter 1985, p. 133; Jaitner 1986 (1987), p. 415 gives January 6, 1930 as the conclusion of the transaction]; 1938.1957 was purchased by Kate S. Buckingham (died 1937), Chicago, from Goldschmidt Galleries, New York, in 1931 [receipt R. 4807 dated 24 April 1931 in Registrar's office] and was on loan to the museum from that date; bequeathed to the museum and accessioned, 1938.
Linked open data
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- Object type
- AAT300411548
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