Cleveland Museum of Art

The Great Chalice Adorned with Figures

Wenceslaus Hollar

Date

1640

Medium

etching

Culture

Bohemia, 17th century

Department

Prints

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Chalices traditionally hold the priest’s consecrated wine during Catholic Mass. Wenceslaus Hollar made this etching of an over-life-size chalice from a drawing in the collection of his patron, the English 14th Earl of Arundel. The elaborate decoration consists of scenes from the suffering and death of Christ, standing saints and apostles on the stem, and a pointed foot inspired by Moorish designs (a style prominent in Spain and North Africa featuring distinctive pointed arches). The barely discernable crescent shape just above the rim suggests a hovering Eucharistic wafer, representing the body of Christ. Dating back to the Romanesque period, architectural niches populated by Christ's apostles—like those seen on the stem of this chalice—are a common feature on church facades.

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