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The Treasury of Basel Cathedral
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Hallwyl Reliquary, before 1470 (Strasbourg); 1470 (base; Mathias Frischmut)
Raised, cast, engraved, punched, and chased gold, with diamonds and a ruby (Crucifixion group); raised, cast, engraved, cut, and gilded silver, with opaque champlevé enamel, a sapphire, and a sardonyx cameo (reliquary); and gilded lindenwood (base); H. (overall) 23 1/8 in. (58.7 cm)
Historisches Museum Basel
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Description
The Crucifixion group is wrought of pure gold and is attached to the gilded-silver reliquary shrine. To provide greater prominence and visibility, the ensemble was fitted with a slightly later gilded-wood base. The shrine bears the punchmark of the Strasbourg goldsmiths. There are no identifying marks on the Crucifixion group, but stylistically it is closely linked to Strasbourg and to the sculpture of Niclaus Gerhaert von Leiden, a seminal artist active there in the 1460s. Characteristic is Christ's serene but psychologically intense facial expression that contrasts with the carefully observed anatomy of his tortuously stretched and drawn body, the fluttering loincloth about the dead weight of his torso, and the naturalistic treatment of the wood of the cross. Acquired from the ennobled Rudolf V. von Hallwyl by the cathedral chapter on April 6, 1480, the Hallwyl Reliquary ranks among the greatest masterpieces of goldsmiths' work to have survived from the late Middle Ages.
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