Reliquary Bust of Saint Yrieix
The silver image originally covered a wooden core, which is exhibited nearby. Though carefully carved, it was not originally intended to be seen, but to give shape to and to provide support for the precious metal sheathing. Once the skull was set in place this wooden core, though sensitively carved, would have been completely obscured by sheets of silver. The precious material evoked the saint’s heavenly countenance, while the skull imparted a sense of his abiding authority.
Artwork Details
- Title: Reliquary Bust of Saint Yrieix
- Date: ca. 1220–40, with later grill
- Geography: Made in Limoges, France
- Culture: French
- Medium: Silver and gilded silver with rock crystal, gems, and glass
- Dimensions: Overall (Reliquary): 15 x 9 3/16 x 10 1/4 in. (38.1 x 23.4 x 26.1 cm)
Other (Wooden core): 14 7/16 x 8 7/8 x 9 13/16 in. (36.6 x 22.5 x 24.9 cm) - Classification: Metalwork-Silver
- Credit Line: Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917
- Object Number: 17.190.352a, b
- Curatorial Department: Medieval Art and The Cloisters
Audio
3125. Reliquary Bust of Saint Yrieix
NARRATOR: Barbara Drake Boehm is a curator at the Museum.
BARBARA DRAKE BOEHM: This is the reliquary bust of Saint Yriex, a saint who is venerated in Central France in a little village that bears his name. Saint Yriex was a nobleman of the sixth century. He lived to an old age. He was not martyred and upon his death he left all of his possessions and his property …to this monastery. Now there in the thirteenth century they made this reliquary head.
If you were to go to the village now, you would see in fact a copy of this reliquary head. They have a copy there that has the original skull of St. Yriex that is the prized possession of the church. The reliquary bust in a sense functioned as a kind of spiritual ancestor for the community and would’ve played a very active role in the life of the monastery. On normal days, it would’ve been displayed on the altar of the monastery’s church. But on the Feast of Saint Yriex and other important occasions it would’ve been processed through the village of Saint Yriex, as it still is today.
You can see wonderful details that have been worked into this silver head by looking at the gilt eyebrows of this saint and his kind of five o’ clock shadow. And then he has a wonderful collar, and it’s done in a technique, which is called filigree, where tiny little wires of gilt silver are turned and twisted around in rather complicated floral patterns as a background then to large rock crystals that decorate his collar, and then angels put on either side.
At the top of his head, you see a kind of hinged door and that was a means of providing access to the relic itself, that is, the skull of the saint.
NARRATOR: To hear about how this reliquary was made, walk to the wooden core on the other side of the case. [PAUSE]
BARBARA DRAKE BOEHM: What we did was to take those sheets off and to mount them on another modern core so that you could see both pieces together and really get a sense of the sculptural quality of this piece, which is more than just goldsmiths’ work. It’s also Gothic sculpture.
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