With its lively nude male figures and dragons entwined in foliage, this bowl was likely a part of a secular drinking cup rather than a ciborium (a vessel that holds the Host) or a chalice for use in the Mass, as was once thought. Between the principal compartments inhabited by the nude figures and dragons are smaller areas with basilisks. The heads of the men and beasts are in high relief, and the bands between the compartments and the palmette frieze below the rim are crisply rendered. The decoration of the bowl has parallels in twelfth-century English art, but similar pieces have also been found in Sweden. This example was discovered near the Ob' River in Siberia, an indication of how objects in Middle Ages sometimes circulated far from their place of manufacture.
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Title:Bowl of a Drinking Cup
Date:late 12th century
Geography:Made in England or Scandinavia
Culture:British or Scandinavian
Medium:Silver, silver gilt, and niello
Dimensions:Overall: 3 1/8 x 6 7/8 in. (7.9 x 17.5 cm)
Classification:Metalwork-Silver
Credit Line:The Cloisters Collection, 1947
Object Number:47.101.31
Alexander Petrovich Basilevsky, Paris (1878–1885) ; State Hermitage Museum (from 1885) ; [ Nicolas Brimo, Paris (sold 1934)] ; [ Brummer Gallery, Paris and New York (1934–sold 1947)]
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "Arts of the Middle Ages: A Loan Exhibition," February 17–March 24, 1940.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Year 1200: A Centennial Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art," February 12–May 10, 1970.
Hayward Gallery. "English Romanesque Art 1066—1200," April 5–July 8, 1984.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Winchester Bible: A Masterpiece of Medieval Art in Context," December 8, 2014–March 8, 2015.
Basilewsky,Alexander, and Alfred Darcel. Collection Basilewsky: Catalogue raisonné précédé d'un essai sur les art industriels du Ier au XVIe siècle. Volume 2, Plates. Paris: Veuve A. Morel et Cie, 1874. pl. XXI.
Basilewsky,Alexander, and Alfred Darcel. Collection Basilewsky: Catalogue raisonné précédé d'un essai sur les art industriels du Ier au XVIe siècle. Volume 1, Text. Paris: Veuve A. Morel et Cie, 1874. no. 139, p. 51.
Darcel, Alfred. "Exposition Universelle de 1878: Le Moyen Âge et la Renaissance au Trocadéro (part 2)." Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 2nd ser., 18, no. 4 (April 1878). p. 539, ill. p. 537.
Arts of the Middle Ages: A Loan Exhibition. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1940. no. 216, p. 64, pl. XXI.
Rorimer, James J. "A Treasury at the Cloisters." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 6, no. 9 (May 1948). pp. 238–239.
Swarzenski, Hanns. Monuments of Romanesque Art: the Art of Church Treasures in North-Western Europe. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1954. p. 77, fig. 457, pl. 198.
Swarzenski, Hanns. Monuments of Romanesque Art: the Art of Church Treasures in North-Western Europe. 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1967. p. 77, fig. 457, pl. 198.
Hoffmann, Konrad, ed. The Year 1200: A Centennial Exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 1. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1970. no. 169, pp. 163–164.
Lasko, Peter. Ars Sacra, 800-1200. 1st ed. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1972. p. 302, n. 43.
Zarnecki, George, Janet Holt, and Tristram Holland, ed. English Romanesque Art, 1066-1200. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1984. no. 308, p. 287.
Shepard, Mary B. Europe in the Middle Ages, edited by Charles T. Little, and Timothy B. Husband. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987. p. 78, pl. 71.
Young, Bonnie. A Walk Through The Cloisters. 5th ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1988. pp. 106–107.
Lasko, Peter. Ars Sacra, 800-1200. 2nd ed. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1994. p. 216.
Barnet, Peter, and Nancy Y. Wu. The Cloisters: Medieval Art and Architecture. New York and New Haven: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005. no. 32, pp. 65, 194.
Barnet, Peter, and Nancy Y. Wu. The Cloisters: Medieval Art and Architecture. 75th Anniversary ed. New York and New Haven: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2012. p. 63.
Brennan, Christine E. "The Brummer Gallery and the Business of Art." Journal of the History of Collections 27, no. 3 (November 2015). p. 461.
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