Royal Gold Cup
Encyclopedia
The Royal Gold Cup or Saint Agnes Cup is a solid gold
covered cup lavishly decorated with enamel
and pearl
s. It was made for the French royal family at the end of the 14th century, and later belonged to several English monarchs before spending nearly 300 years in Spain. It has been in the British Museum
since 1892, and is generally agreed to be the outstanding surviving example of late medieval French plate. It has been described as "the one surviving royal magnificence of the International Gothic
age"; and according to Thomas Hoving
, former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
in New York, "of all the princely jewels and gold that have come down to us, this is the most spectacular—and that includes the great royal treasures."
The cup is made of solid gold, stands 23.6 cm (9.25 inches) high with a diameter of 17.8 cm (6.94 inches) at its widest point, and weighs 1.935 kg (4.26 lb). It has a cover that lifts off, but the triangular stand on which it once stood is now lost. The stem of the cup has twice been extended by the addition of cylindrical bands, so that it was originally much shorter, giving the overall shape "a typically robust and stocky elegance." The original decorated knop or finial on the cover has been lost, and a moulding decorated with 36 pearls has been removed from the outer edge of the cover; a strip of gold with jagged edges can be seen where it was attached. Presumably it matched the one still in place round the foot of the cup.
The gold surfaces are decorated with scenes in basse-taille
enamel with translucent colours that reflect light from the gold beneath; many areas of gold both underneath the enamel and in the background have engraved
and pointillé
decoration worked in the gold. In particular the decoration features large areas of translucent red, which have survived in excellent condition. This colour, known as rouge clair, was the most difficult to achieve technically, and highly prized for this and the brilliance of the colour when it was done successfully. Scenes from the life of Saint Agnes
run round the top of the cover and the sloping underside of the main body. The symbols of the Four Evangelists
run round the foot of the cup, and there are enamel medallions at the centre of the inside of both the cup and the cover. The lower of the two added bands contains enamel Tudor rose
s on a diapered
pointillé background; this was apparently added under Henry VIII
. The upper band has an engraved inscription filled in with black enamel, with a barrier of laurel
branches in green to mark off the end of the inscription from its beginning.
The cup came to the British Museum with a custom-made hexagonal case of leather on a wood frame, with iron lock, handles and mounts. This was either made at the same time or soon after the cup, and has incised and stamped foliate decoration and a blackletter
inscription: YHE.SUS.O.MARYA.O.MARYA YHE SUS.
. This lists:
John, Duke of Berry
(1340–1416) was Charles VI's uncle and a powerful figure in the kingdom, as well as the most famous and extravagant collector and commissioner of art of his day. He is still best known for commissioning the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry
, the famous International Gothic illuminated manuscript
, and also commissioned the Holy Thorn Reliquary
, now in the British Museum. The young king Charles had been forced to remove his uncle from governorships after the latter's rapacious conduct had led to unrest, and the meeting in 1391 marked their reconciliation after a period of bad relations. Lavish gifts among the Valois court circle were routine, and on this occasion Berry had special reason to be generous.
The cup appears in another inventory of Charles V in 1400, and then is not recorded until it appears as the property of another royal uncle, and collector, John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford
(1389–1435), son of Henry IV
, who was briefly Regent of both France and England for his infant nephew Henry VI
. How he acquired the cup is not known, but he would have received many gifts from Charles VI, and had both lent the king money and bought from him things such as the library of the Palais du Louvre, in the uneasy period when Charles had made peace with the English and made Henry V
his heir. After the death of his brother Henry V, Bedford struggled to stem the resurgent French resistance, which was energised by Joan of Arc
. He died in Normandy
in 1435, leaving Henry VI as his heir. The cup is more briefly described as the first item in a list of valuables received from Bedford's estate prepared for Henry VI's minister Cardinal Henry Beaufort, but the tripod is not mentioned, some of the jewels are missing, and the subject is mis-identified as the life of Saint Suzanna not Saint Agnes. For some reason it does not appear in a royal inventory of 1441; Jenny Stratford suggests that this was because Beaufort still had it at this point. Another possibility is that it had been pawned, as it was in 1449 and again in 1451, on both occasions to finance England's increasingly unsuccessful efforts to hold on to French territory;
The cup first appears in the records of the new Tudor dynasty
under Henry VIII
in 1521. By now the cover had lost the finial "garnished with four sapphires, three balas rubies and fifteen pearls" described in Charles VI's inventory and had a new one of gold in the form of a closed, or "imperial" crown. This matches a propaganda drive at this time by Henry to assert England as an "empire", a contemporary sense meaning a state recognising no superior, though the Great Seal of England had already used a closed crown since 1471. Other uses had probably been found for the jewels of the old finial; it is assumed that the lower band with the Tudor roses was added in Henry's reign, as part of a programme of adding Tudor badges to possessions inherited from earlier dynasties, which covered tapestries, illuminated manuscripts and buildings such as King's College Chapel in Cambridge
. The cup is described in inventories in 1532 and after Henry's death in 1547
, and then under Elizabeth I
it was inventoried in 1574 and 1596.
When James I
succeeded to the English throne in 1603, one of his first priorities was to end the Anglo-Spanish War
, which had been dragging on since 1585. A Spanish delegation arrived for the Somerset House Conference, which concluded with a treaty signed in 1604. The leader of the Habsburg
diplomats was Juan Fernández de Velasco, 5th Duke of Frías
and Constable of Castile
. The upper extension to the stem of the cup has a Latin inscription that translates as:
The gift of "some 70 items of silver and gold plate" by James to the Constable, of which the cup was the most notable item, is documented on both the English and Spanish sides; the Constable wrote an account of his mission on his return, which mentions the gift from James. The Constable had previously presented both James and the queen with elaborate cups, among other valuable gifts. According to Pauline Croft, "With his usual over-generosity the king gave the departing envoys around half the large gold vessels from the royal possessions he had inherited from Elizabeth. The Constable himself received a stupendous gift of plate, including possibly the most venerable item in the collection, known as "the Royal Gold Cup of the Kings of France and England." In 1610 the Constable gave the cup to a convent in Medina de Pomar
, near Burgos
, as the inscription describes. His deed of gift survives, and records that the gift was on condition that the cup was never alienated by the convent. A marginal note on the deed, in the Constable's own handwriting, records that he had obtained the permission of the Archbishop of Toledo for the cup to be used as a ciborium, or container for consecrated hosts
. By this period a rule of the church normally forbade the use of vessels decorated on their inner surface as ciboria.
The cup stayed in the convent until 1882 when the nuns were short of funds and wanted to sell it. It was at some point during this period that the pearl border to the cover and the Tudor finial were removed. The nuns decided they would get a better price in Paris than in Spain, and the cup was entrusted to Simon Campo, a priest, who took it to Paris and approached several leading dealers and collectors. There had been a spate of forgeries of medieval objects, and the Parisians were suspicious, until one, Baron Jerome Pichon, researched the second added cylinder and was sufficiently convinced that this was the cup documented in 1604 to make a rather low offer, which was accepted. In the course of his researches the baron had contacted the current Duke of Frías, who had supplied useful information, and then initially congratulated the buyer on his purchase. However, on looking further into the matter the duke realized that the sale was contrary to the 1610 deed of gift he had discovered in the family archives, and sued in the French courts to recover the cup.
The duke eventually lost his case in 1891, enabling a further sale that had been set up by Baron Pichon to proceed. This was to the leading firm of Messrs. Wertheimer of Bond Street
in London, where the cup was seen by Augustus Wollaston Franks
, who had been Keeper of British and Mediaeval Antiquities and Ethnography at the British Museum since 1866, and was president of the Society of Antiquaries
. Samson Wertheimer agreed "with much public spirit" to sell the cup to the British Museum for the £8,000 (£ in ) it had cost the firm. Franks was worried by the new American collectors such as J. P. Morgan
, and in 1891 wrote to Sir Henry Tate
, of Tate Gallery
fame: "A very wonderful gold cup has appeared returned to this country after an absence of 287 years, and I am anxious to see it placed in the National Museum and not removed to America." He tried to get wealthy individuals to subscribe £500 (£ in ) each, but even with a grant of £2,000 from HM Treasury
could not raise the price. He was forced to put up £5,000 of his own money temporarily while he continued to try to get smaller amounts from others, and succeeded in 1892 when the Treasury agreed to contribute the final £830; "to Franks this was his greatest acquisition, and the one of which he was most proud." Apart from the Treasury, the £500 contributors were Franks and Wertheimer, the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths
, Charles Drury Edward Fortnum
, the Duke of Northumberland
, Lord Savile, Lord Iveagh and the Earl of Crawford.
Much the most prominent decoration on the cup is the cycle of scenes from the life of Saint Agnes
, which is rarely depicted in such detail in art. However, there was one outstanding devotee of the saint in the period: King Charles V of France, Berry's older brother and Charles VI's father. Charles V was born in 1338 on Saint Agnes' feast day, January 21, and is recorded as owning at least 13 works of art featuring her, including a different gold cup enamelled with scenes from her life (both are recorded in the 1391 inventory). Until recent decades the generally accepted hypothesis was that Berry ordered the cup as a present for his brother in 1380, to be ready for his birthday in January 1381. When the king died in September 1380, Berry had retained it for a decade before presenting it to Charles VI.
However in 1978 Ronald Lightbown, Keeper of Metalwork at the V&A Museum, rejected this theory on stylistic grounds, considering that the cup must have been created only shortly before it appeared in Charles VI's inventory in 1391. He says that "in 1380 figure-style was a softly undulating, flowing style, with slender elongated figures and much use of serpentine or curving folds in the drapery, and with trailing dresses ending in sinuous Gothic hem-lines" —a style that can be seen in the miniature of the coronation of Charles VI in 1380 illustrated above. In contrast, Lightbown says "the figures on the cup are broad, some might even be called stocky, with soft drapery of cylindrical form, or of smooth, tight outlines. The folds are tubular and the hems of the robes are straight with no waving, trailing outlines. The style in fact is the 'Italianate' manner which developed in France as a result of contact with 'trecento
' art, and not the purely Northern Gothic International manner." This view was rejected in 1981 by Neil Stratford, former Keeper of Medieval and Later Antiquities at the British Museum, who pointed to a number of manuscript illuminations in a similar style that date from earlier than 1390. John Cherry, another former Keeper of the medieval collections at the British Museum, still presents the older dating in a work of 2010, and the British Museum website dates the cup to "about 1370–1380".
Another traditional assumption, based on the language of the inventories and shared by almost all writers, was that the cup was a piece of secular plate, for use at table, or display on a buffet beside it. The buffet of the period was more like a modern Welsh dresser
or shop display unit, with receding shelves for displaying on important occasions all the plate of the household that was not in use. Neil Stratford suggests that the cup was only used to drink from on special occasions, including St Agnes' feast day, while Lightbown remarks that at over four pounds in weight the cup is much too heavy to drink from conveniently. However John Cherry, noting the exclusively religious subjects depicted (including that on the lost tripod stand) considers that the cup may have been intended as a ciborium from the start. It might have been used either to accompany in its carrying case the duke on his tours of his many castles and palaces, or perhaps for his foundation of the Saint Chapelle at his capital of Bourges
, intended to rival the king's Sainte-Chapelle
in Paris and his brother's foundation at Champmol
in Dijon
.
The four sons of King John II of France
—Charles V, Louis I, Duke of Anjou (1339–1384), Berry and Philip the Bold
, Duke of Burgundy
(1342–1404)—all spent huge sums on works in gold and silver, as well as on other works of art. Although it is Berry who is especially remembered as a patron, partly because he specialized in illuminated manuscripts which have little value in their materials, it was his brother Louis of Anjou who was the "most passionately interested in the goldsmith's art"; he had over 3,000 pieces of plate at one point. These included wholly secular pieces with sculptures in enamel that can only be imagined by comparison: in terms of technique to the handful of reliquaries, like the British Museum's Holy Thorn Reliquary
, that have survived from the period, and in terms of subject matter to tapestries and illuminations. However in 1381 Anjou melted down almost all his plate to finance a war to pursue his claim to the Kingdom of Naples
. According to the sculptor and goldsmith Lorenzo Ghiberti
, writing seventy years later, one of Anjou's goldsmiths, called Gusmin and "a most skillful sculptor, of great talent", was so affected by the destruction of his life's work that he joined an eremetic monastic order
and lived out his days in silence. The Royal Gold Cup was "probably not exceptional as to size or decoration" in this milieu; once "but one member of a class, it now stands alone". An inventory of Charles V records 25 gold cups weighing between five and fifteen marcs; this is slightly over nine without its stand. Smaller gold cups are recorded in sets of a dozen, of which Charles V had three. The largest items were the great table ornaments, in the shape of ships, called nefs, of which Charles V had five, the heaviest weighing over 53 marcs.
Berry died in 1416 with no male heir, and deeply in debt. Those of his works in precious metal and jewels that had not already gone to his creditors were mostly seized by the English when they took Paris in July 1417. This was the first of a number of periods that saw the large-scale destruction of goldsmiths' work that the cup escaped, but thousands of other pieces did not, a survival that Brigitte Buettner finds "almost miraculous". In particular, the move to Spain in 1604 enabled it to avoid the dispersal and destruction of the English Crown Jewels and royal collection of plate under the English Commonwealth
.
As a secular piece the cup would be an almost unique survival at this level of quality, "the one representative left to us of medieval secular plate in its most sumptuous development". Although French plate in silver and gold was made in great quantities, and at a high level of quality, "French silver made prior to the early 19th century is probably scarcer than that of any other European country." The cost of even very skilled labour was low compared to that of the materials, and in the absence of any reliable way of either depositing or investing money, it was turned into lavish objects, in the knowledge that it might well need to be sold or melted down to finance some future project. If it survived long enough to become old-fashioned it was likely to be melted down and remodelled in a new style.
There are only four other known survivals, secular or religious, of basse taille enamel on gold, one the small Salting
Reliquary
, also in the British Museum, and none as fine as the cup. The "King John Cup" in King's Lynn
, of ca. 1340, silver-gilt
with transparent enamel, is the best example of basse-taille work probably made in England; the metalwork expert Herbert Maryon describes this and the Royal Gold Cup as the "two examples of outstanding merit, unsurpassed in any collection." However it is unclear if most of the enamel at King's Lynn is original. The closest comparison to the Royal Gold Cup is perhaps the silver-gilt Mérode Cup
of about 1400, which is the only surviving medieval example of plique á jour enamel, a difficult technique which creates a see-through effect like stained glass. A silver-gilt cup in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam of before 1376 has no enamels or gems, and a different shape, but offers an interesting comparison as it has a tripod stand with winged grotesques as legs, a short stem, and the cover has both an elaborate finial and a raised decorated strip around the rim, so that all the altered aspects of the Royal Gold Cup are present.
, follows the traditional story of Golden Legend
of Jacobus de Voragine
; the most popular compilation of hagiographies of the age, whose wording corresponds to some of the inscriptions in banderoles or scrolls that explain the scenes. Other texts are quotations from the Latin Vulgate
Bible, mostly derived from the liturgy
for St Agnes' feast day, and it has been suggested that the two rings of pearls also reflect the language of the chants for these services. It seems likely that clerical
advice was taken, at least over the texts used in the inscriptions. It is tempting to relate the depiction of the story, with its "distinct and vivid tableaux, well suited to adaptation for performance" to medieval drama, often a source for iconography
, but the fragmentary records mention no dramas on the life of St Agnes that are close in time or place to the origin of the cup.
Agnes and her sister were virgins of Rome in the time of the Emperor Constantine
, though all figures are shown in contemporary 14th-century dress. The story begins on the inside of the bowl, which has a round medallion showing St Agnes kneeling before a bearded figure, representing her teacher, wearing a chaperon
. She holds a book inscribed Miserere mei Deus sancte ("Have pity on me, Holy God"), while a banderole says In corde meo abscondi eloquia tua ut non peccem tibi ("Thy words have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee". ). The top of the cover continues the story up to Agnes' martyrdom in five scenes, shown with a continuous groundline from which small rocks rise up to demarcate the scenes; on the base trees perform this function. Sunrays radiate from the centre of the cover above all the scenes; the red enamel which once filled these is nearly all lost.
In the first scene the two girls are returning from school, Agnes accompanied by her punning attribute
, a lamb
with a cruciform halo
, and carrying a martyr's palm
. They are accosted by Procopius, the young son of the Prefect of Rome, who has fallen in love with Agnes and shows her an open casket of jewels to persuade her to marry him. The inside of the casket is white, the only colour of opaque enamel in the original work, used only for a few highlights like the tiny area of the host held by Christ on the inside of the cover. Agnes rejects him, with the words Illi sum desponsata cui angeli serviunt ("I am betrothed to him who the angels serve") in a banderole above. In the Caxton her rejection is unequivocal and not polite, and she points out that her heavenly fiancé has promised her much better jewels. The Prefect stands behind his son, and in the next scene has sentenced her to serve in a brothel
for being a Christian who refuses to sacrifice to the goddess Vesta
. Caxton's Legend fills in the intervening action:
In the following scene Agnes has been moved by the Prefect's grief, and prayed for the son to be restored to life, which an angel has done. The repentant Procopius kneels before her, while she leans down to tell him Vade amplius noli peccare ("Go forth and sin no more"; from ). However the result of the miracle was that (in William Caxton
's translation) "the bishops of the idols made a great discord among the people, so that all they cried: Take away this sorceress and witch that turned men's minds and alieneth their wits". The Prefect is now sympathetic to Agnes but fears he will lose his position if he does nothing, so leaves the matter in the hands of another official; the two are seen talking together, with words from Nihil invenio cause in eam ("I find no cause against her") above. The last scene shows her martyrdom; she was sentenced to be burned but the flames part away from her so that finally the magistrate orders her killed by a spear. Her last words, from , are In manus tuas domine commendo animam meam ("Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit").
The scenes continue on the underside of the bowl, starting with Agnes' burial. A pall is being laid over her sarcophagus
, whose red enamel has significant losses, which reveal clearly the engraved lines beneath. A tonsure
d priest with an aspergil
for sprinkling holy water
and an acolyte
with a cross attend, with Emerentiana with halo to the left, and Agnes' mother to the right. The banderole above says Ecce quod concupivi iam teneo ("Behold what I have desired I now possess"). In the next scene pagans have arrived to disrupt the burial, and only Emerentiana has stayed, kneeling in prayer as she is pelted with rocks. The inscription reads Veni soror mea mecum in gloria ("Come with me my sister into glory"). She dies, and the following scene shows the two martyrs, accompanied by two other unnamed female martyrs (in the source "a great multitude of virgins clad in vestments of gold and silver"), as they appear in a vision to Agnes' friends eight days after her death, as they gather round her sarcophagus, into which Emerentiana's body has also been placed.
The next scene shows the sarcophagus with Constantina
, the daughter of the Emperor Constantine, asleep on top of it, wearing a crown. She has been afflicted with leprosy
, and heard of the vision at Agnes' tomb, and come to pray there. The presence at left of a young man on crutches, not in the source, suggests that others are doing the same. The sleeping woman beside the tomb is either another such, or an attendant on the princess. As Constantina sleeps, Agnes, holding her lamb, appears to her, saying Si in xpm (Christum) credideris sanaberis ("If you believe in Christ you will be healed", an adaptation of the text in the source). In the final scene, the cured, and baptized, Constantina tells her crowned father the story, with the inscription Hec est virgo sapiens una de numero prudencium ("This is a wise virgin, one of the number of the prudent").
The inside of the cover has a circular enamel medallion with worked gold borders, showing a half-length Christ making a blessing gesture and holding a chalice
with a host inside. Around him is a sun-like aureole in red. Below the two added cylinders on the stem, the four traditional symbols of the Evangelists run round the sloping foot of the cup, in pairs facing each other, above a green ground area. Lightbown notes this as "another sign of care for naturalistic effect".
The process for creating the basse-taille
enamel areas began by marking the outline of the design and the main internal outlines on the gold with a tool called a "tracer". Then the interior area was worked with chasing tools
, hammering and punching rather than cutting, to form a shallow recess to hold the enamel. The more important parts of the design were modelled by varying the depth of the surface to produce different intensities of colour when the translucent enamel was added; the gold under folds of drapery often rises near the surface to create a paler highlight. In many of the recessed areas decoration was added by either engraving or punching which would show through the translucent enamel, or to facet the background so the reflections change as the viewing angle changes slightly. In these last-mentioned areas cutting tools were used. Most of the background outside the enamelled areas was decorated in the same way. After the enamel was added and fired the surfaces were cleaned up, made good and polished, including removing by scraping any bumps showing through on the reverse of the metal.
The enamel lies flush with the gold surfaces; it was a preparation of finely ground glass paste applied with great care to the prepared recessed areas, and then fired. Different colours of enamel meet each other with a neat boundary, which was achieved by firing one colour with a retaining border of gum tragacanth before adding the next. The difficulty was increased by the application of tints of a different colour to a base shade of enamel before firing, so that the added colour blends gradually into the background colour around the edges of the tinted area. This is especially used on "flux", or colourless enamel, as in the ground areas, rocks and trees. Flux was also used for flesh areas as on a gold background it darkens slightly when fired to a suitable colour for skin. The rouge clair or "ruby glass" red, used so effectively here, was made by adding tiny particles of copper
, silver and gold to the glass; here scientific tests have shown that copper was used. After firing the enamel was polished flush with the surrounding metal. The technique had been known to the Ancient Romans (see the Lycurgus Cup
, also in the British Museum), but was lost at the end of the Middle Ages until the 17th century. The added cylinders use opaque enamel, except for the red on the Tudor roses, which is translucent rouge clair, of a similar composition to the original reds. Translucent enamel is more fragile than opaque, and medieval survivals in good condition are very rare.
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
covered cup lavishly decorated with enamel
Vitreous enamel
Vitreous enamel, also porcelain enamel in U.S. English, is a material made by fusing powdered glass to a substrate by firing, usually between 750 and 850 °C...
and pearl
Pearl
A pearl is a hard object produced within the soft tissue of a living shelled mollusk. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is made up of calcium carbonate in minute crystalline form, which has been deposited in concentric layers. The ideal pearl is perfectly round and smooth, but many other...
s. It was made for the French royal family at the end of the 14th century, and later belonged to several English monarchs before spending nearly 300 years in Spain. It has been in the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
since 1892, and is generally agreed to be the outstanding surviving example of late medieval French plate. It has been described as "the one surviving royal magnificence of the International Gothic
International Gothic
International Gothic is a phase of Gothic art which developed in Burgundy, Bohemia, France and northern Italy in the late 14th century and early 15th century...
age"; and according to Thomas Hoving
Thomas Hoving
Thomas Pearsall Field Hoving was an American museum executive and consultant and the former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.-Biography:...
, former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
in New York, "of all the princely jewels and gold that have come down to us, this is the most spectacular—and that includes the great royal treasures."
The cup is made of solid gold, stands 23.6 cm (9.25 inches) high with a diameter of 17.8 cm (6.94 inches) at its widest point, and weighs 1.935 kg (4.26 lb). It has a cover that lifts off, but the triangular stand on which it once stood is now lost. The stem of the cup has twice been extended by the addition of cylindrical bands, so that it was originally much shorter, giving the overall shape "a typically robust and stocky elegance." The original decorated knop or finial on the cover has been lost, and a moulding decorated with 36 pearls has been removed from the outer edge of the cover; a strip of gold with jagged edges can be seen where it was attached. Presumably it matched the one still in place round the foot of the cup.
The gold surfaces are decorated with scenes in basse-taille
Basse-taille
Basse-taille is an enamelling technique in which the artist creates a low-relief pattern in metal, usually silver or gold, by engraving or chasing. The entire pattern is created in such a way that its highest point is lower than the surrounding metal...
enamel with translucent colours that reflect light from the gold beneath; many areas of gold both underneath the enamel and in the background have engraved
Engraving
Engraving is the practice of incising a design on to a hard, usually flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an intaglio printing plate, of copper or another metal, for printing...
and pointillé
Pointillé
Pointillé is a decorative technique in which patterns are formed on a surface by a means of punched dots. The technique is similar to embossing or engraving but is done manually and does not cut into the surface being decorated. Pointillé was commonly used to decorate arms and armor starting in...
decoration worked in the gold. In particular the decoration features large areas of translucent red, which have survived in excellent condition. This colour, known as rouge clair, was the most difficult to achieve technically, and highly prized for this and the brilliance of the colour when it was done successfully. Scenes from the life of Saint Agnes
Saint Agnes
Agnes of Rome is a virgin–martyr, venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, and Lutheranism. She is one of seven women, excluding the Blessed Virgin, commemorated by name in the Canon of the Mass...
run round the top of the cover and the sloping underside of the main body. The symbols of the Four Evangelists
Four Evangelists
In Christian tradition the Four Evangelists are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the authors attributed with the creation of the four Gospel accounts in the New Testament that bear the following titles:*Gospel according to Matthew*Gospel according to Mark...
run round the foot of the cup, and there are enamel medallions at the centre of the inside of both the cup and the cover. The lower of the two added bands contains enamel Tudor rose
Tudor rose
The Tudor Rose is the traditional floral heraldic emblem of England and takes its name and origins from the Tudor dynasty.-Origins:...
s on a diapered
Diapering
Diaper is any of a wide range of decorative patterns used in a variety of works of art, such as stained glass, heraldic shields, architecture, silverwork etc. Its chief use is in the enlivening of plain surfaces.-Etymology:...
pointillé background; this was apparently added under Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
. The upper band has an engraved inscription filled in with black enamel, with a barrier of laurel
Bay Laurel
The bay laurel , also known as sweet bay, bay tree, true laurel, Grecian laurel, laurel tree, or simply laurel, is an aromatic evergreen tree or large shrub with green, glossy leaves, native to the Mediterranean region. It is the source of the bay leaf used in cooking...
branches in green to mark off the end of the inscription from its beginning.
The cup came to the British Museum with a custom-made hexagonal case of leather on a wood frame, with iron lock, handles and mounts. This was either made at the same time or soon after the cup, and has incised and stamped foliate decoration and a blackletter
Blackletter
Blackletter, also known as Gothic script, Gothic minuscule, or Textura, was a script used throughout Western Europe from approximately 1150 to well into the 17th century. It continued to be used for the German language until the 20th century. Fraktur is a notable script of this type, and sometimes...
inscription: YHE.SUS.O.MARYA.O.MARYA YHE SUS.
Provenance
There is no firm evidence as to the date and circumstances of the creation of the cup. It is first clearly documented in an inventory from 1391 of the valuables belonging to Charles VI of France (reigned 1380–1422), surviving in two copies in the Bibliothèque nationale de FranceBibliothèque nationale de France
The is the National Library of France, located in Paris. It is intended to be the repository of all that is published in France. The current president of the library is Bruno Racine.-History:...
. This lists:
A hanapHanaperHanaper, properly a case or basket to contain a "hanap " , a drinking vessel, a goblet with a foot or stem; the term which is still used by antiquaries for medieval stemmed cups. The famous Royal Gold Cup in the British Museum is called a "hanap" in the inventory of Charles VI of France of...
of gold, all its cover well and richly enamelled on the outside with the life of Madame St Agnes; and the cresting of the foot is garnished with 26 pearls, and the crown around the cover with 36 pearls; and the finial of the said cover (is) garnished with four sapphires, three balas rubiesSpinelSpinel is the magnesium aluminium member of the larger spinel group of minerals. It has the formula MgAl2O4. Balas ruby is an old name for a rose-tinted variety.-Spinel group:...
and fifteen pearls. And it weighs 9 marcs 3 ounces of gold. and the said hanap rests on a stand of gold in the form of a tripod, and in the middle of the tripod is represented Our Lady in a sun on a ground of clear red, and the three feet of the tripod are formed by three winged dragons. The said hanap and cover were given to the king by monseigneur the duc de Berry on his journey into TouraineTouraineThe Touraine is one of the traditional provinces of France. Its capital was Tours. During the political reorganization of French territory in 1790, the Touraine was divided between the departments of Indre-et-Loire, :Loir-et-Cher and Indre.-Geography:...
in the year 91.
John, Duke of Berry
John of Valois or John the Magnificent was Duke of Berry and Auvergne and Count of Poitiers and Montpensier. He was the third son of King John II of France and Bonne of Luxemburg; his brothers were King Charles V of France, Duke Louis I of Anjou and Duke Philip the Bold of Burgundy...
(1340–1416) was Charles VI's uncle and a powerful figure in the kingdom, as well as the most famous and extravagant collector and commissioner of art of his day. He is still best known for commissioning the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry
Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry
The Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry or simply the Très Riches Heures is a richly decorated book of hours commissioned by John, Duke of Berry, around 1410...
, the famous International Gothic illuminated manuscript
Illuminated manuscript
An illuminated manuscript is a manuscript in which the text is supplemented by the addition of decoration, such as decorated initials, borders and miniature illustrations...
, and also commissioned the Holy Thorn Reliquary
Holy Thorn Reliquary
The Holy Thorn Reliquary was probably created in the 1390s in Paris for John, Duke of Berry, to house a relic of the Crown of Thorns. The reliquary was bequeathed to the British Museum in 1898 by Ferdinand de Rothschild as part of the Waddesdon Bequest...
, now in the British Museum. The young king Charles had been forced to remove his uncle from governorships after the latter's rapacious conduct had led to unrest, and the meeting in 1391 marked their reconciliation after a period of bad relations. Lavish gifts among the Valois court circle were routine, and on this occasion Berry had special reason to be generous.
The cup appears in another inventory of Charles V in 1400, and then is not recorded until it appears as the property of another royal uncle, and collector, John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford
John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford
John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford, KG , also known as John Plantagenet, was the third surviving son of King Henry IV of England by Mary de Bohun, and acted as Regent of France for his nephew, King Henry VI....
(1389–1435), son of Henry IV
Henry IV of England
Henry IV was King of England and Lord of Ireland . He was the ninth King of England of the House of Plantagenet and also asserted his grandfather's claim to the title King of France. He was born at Bolingbroke Castle in Lincolnshire, hence his other name, Henry Bolingbroke...
, who was briefly Regent of both France and England for his infant nephew Henry VI
Henry VI of England
Henry VI was King of England from 1422 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471, and disputed King of France from 1422 to 1453. Until 1437, his realm was governed by regents. Contemporaneous accounts described him as peaceful and pious, not suited for the violent dynastic civil wars, known as the Wars...
. How he acquired the cup is not known, but he would have received many gifts from Charles VI, and had both lent the king money and bought from him things such as the library of the Palais du Louvre, in the uneasy period when Charles had made peace with the English and made Henry V
Henry V of England
Henry V was King of England from 1413 until his death at the age of 35 in 1422. He was the second monarch belonging to the House of Lancaster....
his heir. After the death of his brother Henry V, Bedford struggled to stem the resurgent French resistance, which was energised by Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc
Saint Joan of Arc, nicknamed "The Maid of Orléans" , is a national heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint. A peasant girl born in eastern France who claimed divine guidance, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, which paved the way for the...
. He died in Normandy
Normandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
in 1435, leaving Henry VI as his heir. The cup is more briefly described as the first item in a list of valuables received from Bedford's estate prepared for Henry VI's minister Cardinal Henry Beaufort, but the tripod is not mentioned, some of the jewels are missing, and the subject is mis-identified as the life of Saint Suzanna not Saint Agnes. For some reason it does not appear in a royal inventory of 1441; Jenny Stratford suggests that this was because Beaufort still had it at this point. Another possibility is that it had been pawned, as it was in 1449 and again in 1451, on both occasions to finance England's increasingly unsuccessful efforts to hold on to French territory;
The cup first appears in the records of the new Tudor dynasty
Tudor dynasty
The Tudor dynasty or House of Tudor was a European royal house of Welsh origin that ruled the Kingdom of England and its realms, including the Lordship of Ireland, later the Kingdom of Ireland, from 1485 until 1603. Its first monarch was Henry Tudor, a descendant through his mother of a legitimised...
under Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
in 1521. By now the cover had lost the finial "garnished with four sapphires, three balas rubies and fifteen pearls" described in Charles VI's inventory and had a new one of gold in the form of a closed, or "imperial" crown. This matches a propaganda drive at this time by Henry to assert England as an "empire", a contemporary sense meaning a state recognising no superior, though the Great Seal of England had already used a closed crown since 1471. Other uses had probably been found for the jewels of the old finial; it is assumed that the lower band with the Tudor roses was added in Henry's reign, as part of a programme of adding Tudor badges to possessions inherited from earlier dynasties, which covered tapestries, illuminated manuscripts and buildings such as King's College Chapel in Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
. The cup is described in inventories in 1532 and after Henry's death in 1547
Inventory of Henry VIII of England
The Inventory of Henry VIII of England compiled in 1547 is a list of the possessions of the crown, now in the British Library as Harley Ms. 1419....
, and then under Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
it was inventoried in 1574 and 1596.
When James I
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
succeeded to the English throne in 1603, one of his first priorities was to end the Anglo-Spanish War
Anglo-Spanish War (1585)
The Anglo–Spanish War was an intermittent conflict between the kingdoms of Spain and England that was never formally declared. The war was punctuated by widely separated battles, and began with England's military expedition in 1585 to the Netherlands under the command of the Earl of Leicester in...
, which had been dragging on since 1585. A Spanish delegation arrived for the Somerset House Conference, which concluded with a treaty signed in 1604. The leader of the Habsburg
Habsburg
The House of Habsburg , also found as Hapsburg, and also known as House of Austria is one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian Empire and...
diplomats was Juan Fernández de Velasco, 5th Duke of Frías
Juan Fernández de Velasco, 5th Duke of Frias
Juan Fernández de Velasco, 5th Duke of Frías was a Spanish nobleman and diplomat.Juan Fernández de Velasco was the son of Íñigo Fernández de Velasco; and of Maria Angela de Aragón y Guzmán El Bueno. He inherited his father's title of Constable of Castile, and was present at the signing of the...
and Constable of Castile
Constable of Castile
Constable of Castile was a title created by John I, King of Castile in 1382, to substitute the title Alférez Mayor del Reino. The constable was the second person in power in the kingdom, after the King, and his responsibility was to command the military in the absence of the ruler.In 1473 Henry IV...
. The upper extension to the stem of the cup has a Latin inscription that translates as:
This cup of solid gold, a relic of the sacred treasure of England and a memorial to the peace made between the kings, the Constable Juan de Velasco, returning thence after successfully accomplishing his mission, presented as an offering to Christ the Peacemaker.
The gift of "some 70 items of silver and gold plate" by James to the Constable, of which the cup was the most notable item, is documented on both the English and Spanish sides; the Constable wrote an account of his mission on his return, which mentions the gift from James. The Constable had previously presented both James and the queen with elaborate cups, among other valuable gifts. According to Pauline Croft, "With his usual over-generosity the king gave the departing envoys around half the large gold vessels from the royal possessions he had inherited from Elizabeth. The Constable himself received a stupendous gift of plate, including possibly the most venerable item in the collection, known as "the Royal Gold Cup of the Kings of France and England." In 1610 the Constable gave the cup to a convent in Medina de Pomar
Medina de Pomar
Medina de Pomar is a municipality located in the province of Burgos, Castile and León, Spain. It is situated 77 km from Bilbao, and 88 km from Burgos, the capital of the province, 8 kilometres from Villarcayo and about 20 km from Espinosa de los Monteros, which are the most important towns in the...
, near Burgos
Burgos
Burgos is a city of northern Spain, historic capital of Castile. It is situated at the edge of the central plateau, with about 178,966 inhabitants in the city proper and another 20,000 in its suburbs. It is the capital of the province of Burgos, in the autonomous community of Castile and León...
, as the inscription describes. His deed of gift survives, and records that the gift was on condition that the cup was never alienated by the convent. A marginal note on the deed, in the Constable's own handwriting, records that he had obtained the permission of the Archbishop of Toledo for the cup to be used as a ciborium, or container for consecrated hosts
Sacramental bread
Sacramental bread, sometimes called the lamb, altar bread, host or simply Communion bread, is the bread which is used in the Christian ritual of the Eucharist.-Eastern Catholic and Orthodox:...
. By this period a rule of the church normally forbade the use of vessels decorated on their inner surface as ciboria.
The cup stayed in the convent until 1882 when the nuns were short of funds and wanted to sell it. It was at some point during this period that the pearl border to the cover and the Tudor finial were removed. The nuns decided they would get a better price in Paris than in Spain, and the cup was entrusted to Simon Campo, a priest, who took it to Paris and approached several leading dealers and collectors. There had been a spate of forgeries of medieval objects, and the Parisians were suspicious, until one, Baron Jerome Pichon, researched the second added cylinder and was sufficiently convinced that this was the cup documented in 1604 to make a rather low offer, which was accepted. In the course of his researches the baron had contacted the current Duke of Frías, who had supplied useful information, and then initially congratulated the buyer on his purchase. However, on looking further into the matter the duke realized that the sale was contrary to the 1610 deed of gift he had discovered in the family archives, and sued in the French courts to recover the cup.
The duke eventually lost his case in 1891, enabling a further sale that had been set up by Baron Pichon to proceed. This was to the leading firm of Messrs. Wertheimer of Bond Street
Bond Street
Bond Street is a major shopping street in the West End of London that runs north-south through Mayfair between Oxford Street and Piccadilly. It has been a fashionable shopping street since the 18th century and is currently the home of many high price fashion shops...
in London, where the cup was seen by Augustus Wollaston Franks
Augustus Wollaston Franks
Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks KCB was an English antiquary and museum administrator. Franks was described by Marjorie Caygill, historian of the British Museum, as "arguably the most important collector in the history of the British Museum, and one of the greatest collectors of his age".-Early...
, who had been Keeper of British and Mediaeval Antiquities and Ethnography at the British Museum since 1866, and was president of the Society of Antiquaries
Society of Antiquaries of London
The Society of Antiquaries of London is a learned society "charged by its Royal Charter of 1751 with 'the encouragement, advancement and furtherance of the study and knowledge of the antiquities and history of this and other countries'." It is based at Burlington House, Piccadilly, London , and is...
. Samson Wertheimer agreed "with much public spirit" to sell the cup to the British Museum for the £8,000 (£ in ) it had cost the firm. Franks was worried by the new American collectors such as J. P. Morgan
J. P. Morgan
John Pierpont Morgan was an American financier, banker and art collector who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation during his time. In 1892 Morgan arranged the merger of Edison General Electric and Thomson-Houston Electric Company to form General Electric...
, and in 1891 wrote to Sir Henry Tate
Henry Tate
Sir Henry Tate, 1st Baronet was an English sugar merchant and philanthropist, noted for establishing the Tate Gallery, London.-Life and career:...
, of Tate Gallery
Tate Gallery
The Tate is an institution that houses the United Kingdom's national collection of British Art, and International Modern and Contemporary Art...
fame: "A very wonderful gold cup has appeared returned to this country after an absence of 287 years, and I am anxious to see it placed in the National Museum and not removed to America." He tried to get wealthy individuals to subscribe £500 (£ in ) each, but even with a grant of £2,000 from HM Treasury
HM Treasury
HM Treasury, in full Her Majesty's Treasury, informally The Treasury, is the United Kingdom government department responsible for developing and executing the British government's public finance policy and economic policy...
could not raise the price. He was forced to put up £5,000 of his own money temporarily while he continued to try to get smaller amounts from others, and succeeded in 1892 when the Treasury agreed to contribute the final £830; "to Franks this was his greatest acquisition, and the one of which he was most proud." Apart from the Treasury, the £500 contributors were Franks and Wertheimer, the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths
Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths
The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London. The Company, which has origins in the twelfth century, received a Royal Charter in 1327. It ranks fifth in the order of precedence of Livery Companies. Its motto is Justitia Virtutum Regina, Latin for Justice...
, Charles Drury Edward Fortnum
Fortnum & Mason
Fortnum & Mason, often shortened to just "Fortnum's" is a department store, situated in central London, with two other branches in Japan. Its headquarters is located at 181 Piccadilly, where it was established in 1707 by William Fortnum and Hugh Mason...
, the Duke of Northumberland
Algernon Percy, 6th Duke of Northumberland
Algernon George Percy, 6th Duke of Northumberland KG, PC , styled Lord Lovaine between 1830 and 1865 and Earl Percy between 1865 and 1867, was a British Conservative politician...
, Lord Savile, Lord Iveagh and the Earl of Crawford.
Creation, context and survival
Saint Agnes
Agnes of Rome is a virgin–martyr, venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, and Lutheranism. She is one of seven women, excluding the Blessed Virgin, commemorated by name in the Canon of the Mass...
, which is rarely depicted in such detail in art. However, there was one outstanding devotee of the saint in the period: King Charles V of France, Berry's older brother and Charles VI's father. Charles V was born in 1338 on Saint Agnes' feast day, January 21, and is recorded as owning at least 13 works of art featuring her, including a different gold cup enamelled with scenes from her life (both are recorded in the 1391 inventory). Until recent decades the generally accepted hypothesis was that Berry ordered the cup as a present for his brother in 1380, to be ready for his birthday in January 1381. When the king died in September 1380, Berry had retained it for a decade before presenting it to Charles VI.
However in 1978 Ronald Lightbown, Keeper of Metalwork at the V&A Museum, rejected this theory on stylistic grounds, considering that the cup must have been created only shortly before it appeared in Charles VI's inventory in 1391. He says that "in 1380 figure-style was a softly undulating, flowing style, with slender elongated figures and much use of serpentine or curving folds in the drapery, and with trailing dresses ending in sinuous Gothic hem-lines" —a style that can be seen in the miniature of the coronation of Charles VI in 1380 illustrated above. In contrast, Lightbown says "the figures on the cup are broad, some might even be called stocky, with soft drapery of cylindrical form, or of smooth, tight outlines. The folds are tubular and the hems of the robes are straight with no waving, trailing outlines. The style in fact is the 'Italianate' manner which developed in France as a result of contact with 'trecento
Trecento
The Trecento refers to the 14th century in Italian cultural history.Commonly the Trecento is considered to be the beginning of the Renaissance in art history...
' art, and not the purely Northern Gothic International manner." This view was rejected in 1981 by Neil Stratford, former Keeper of Medieval and Later Antiquities at the British Museum, who pointed to a number of manuscript illuminations in a similar style that date from earlier than 1390. John Cherry, another former Keeper of the medieval collections at the British Museum, still presents the older dating in a work of 2010, and the British Museum website dates the cup to "about 1370–1380".
Another traditional assumption, based on the language of the inventories and shared by almost all writers, was that the cup was a piece of secular plate, for use at table, or display on a buffet beside it. The buffet of the period was more like a modern Welsh dresser
Welsh dresser
A Welsh dresser or a china hutch and sometimes known as a kitchen dresser or pewter cupboard, is a piece of wooden furniture consisting of drawers and cupboards in the lower part, and shelves on top...
or shop display unit, with receding shelves for displaying on important occasions all the plate of the household that was not in use. Neil Stratford suggests that the cup was only used to drink from on special occasions, including St Agnes' feast day, while Lightbown remarks that at over four pounds in weight the cup is much too heavy to drink from conveniently. However John Cherry, noting the exclusively religious subjects depicted (including that on the lost tripod stand) considers that the cup may have been intended as a ciborium from the start. It might have been used either to accompany in its carrying case the duke on his tours of his many castles and palaces, or perhaps for his foundation of the Saint Chapelle at his capital of Bourges
Bourges
Bourges is a city in central France on the Yèvre river. It is the capital of the department of Cher and also was the capital of the former province of Berry.-History:...
, intended to rival the king's Sainte-Chapelle
Sainte-Chapelle
La Sainte-Chapelle is the only surviving building of the Capetian royal palace on the Île de la Cité in the heart of Paris, France. It was commissioned by King Louis IX of France to house his collection of Passion Relics, including the Crown of Thorns - one of the most important relics in medieval...
in Paris and his brother's foundation at Champmol
Champmol
The Chartreuse de Champmol, formally the Chartreuse de la Sainte-Trinité de Champmol, was a Carthusian monastery on the outskirts of Dijon, which is now in France, but in the 15th century was the capital of the Duchy of Burgundy...
in Dijon
Dijon
Dijon is a city in eastern France, the capital of the Côte-d'Or département and of the Burgundy region.Dijon is the historical capital of the region of Burgundy. Population : 151,576 within the city limits; 250,516 for the greater Dijon area....
.
The four sons of King John II of France
John II of France
John II , called John the Good , was the King of France from 1350 until his death. He was the second sovereign of the House of Valois and is perhaps best remembered as the king who was vanquished at the Battle of Poitiers and taken as a captive to England.The son of Philip VI and Joan the Lame,...
—Charles V, Louis I, Duke of Anjou (1339–1384), Berry and Philip the Bold
Philip the Bold
Philip the Bold , also Philip II, Duke of Burgundy , was the fourth and youngest son of King John II of France and his wife, Bonne of Luxembourg. By his marriage to Margaret III, Countess of Flanders, he also became Count Philip II of Flanders, Count Philip IV of Artois and Count-Palatine Philip IV...
, Duke of Burgundy
Duke of Burgundy
Duke of Burgundy was a title borne by the rulers of the Duchy of Burgundy, a small portion of traditional lands of Burgundians west of river Saône which in 843 was allotted to Charles the Bald's kingdom of West Franks...
(1342–1404)—all spent huge sums on works in gold and silver, as well as on other works of art. Although it is Berry who is especially remembered as a patron, partly because he specialized in illuminated manuscripts which have little value in their materials, it was his brother Louis of Anjou who was the "most passionately interested in the goldsmith's art"; he had over 3,000 pieces of plate at one point. These included wholly secular pieces with sculptures in enamel that can only be imagined by comparison: in terms of technique to the handful of reliquaries, like the British Museum's Holy Thorn Reliquary
Holy Thorn Reliquary
The Holy Thorn Reliquary was probably created in the 1390s in Paris for John, Duke of Berry, to house a relic of the Crown of Thorns. The reliquary was bequeathed to the British Museum in 1898 by Ferdinand de Rothschild as part of the Waddesdon Bequest...
, that have survived from the period, and in terms of subject matter to tapestries and illuminations. However in 1381 Anjou melted down almost all his plate to finance a war to pursue his claim to the Kingdom of Naples
Kingdom of Naples
The Kingdom of Naples, comprising the southern part of the Italian peninsula, was the remainder of the old Kingdom of Sicily after secession of the island of Sicily as a result of the Sicilian Vespers rebellion of 1282. Known to contemporaries as the Kingdom of Sicily, it is dubbed Kingdom of...
. According to the sculptor and goldsmith Lorenzo Ghiberti
Lorenzo Ghiberti
Lorenzo Ghiberti , born Lorenzo di Bartolo, was an Italian artist of the early Renaissance best known for works in sculpture and metalworking.-Early life:...
, writing seventy years later, one of Anjou's goldsmiths, called Gusmin and "a most skillful sculptor, of great talent", was so affected by the destruction of his life's work that he joined an eremetic monastic order
Hermit
A hermit is a person who lives, to some degree, in seclusion from society.In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Christian who lives the eremitic life out of a religious conviction, namely the Desert Theology of the Old Testament .In the...
and lived out his days in silence. The Royal Gold Cup was "probably not exceptional as to size or decoration" in this milieu; once "but one member of a class, it now stands alone". An inventory of Charles V records 25 gold cups weighing between five and fifteen marcs; this is slightly over nine without its stand. Smaller gold cups are recorded in sets of a dozen, of which Charles V had three. The largest items were the great table ornaments, in the shape of ships, called nefs, of which Charles V had five, the heaviest weighing over 53 marcs.
Berry died in 1416 with no male heir, and deeply in debt. Those of his works in precious metal and jewels that had not already gone to his creditors were mostly seized by the English when they took Paris in July 1417. This was the first of a number of periods that saw the large-scale destruction of goldsmiths' work that the cup escaped, but thousands of other pieces did not, a survival that Brigitte Buettner finds "almost miraculous". In particular, the move to Spain in 1604 enabled it to avoid the dispersal and destruction of the English Crown Jewels and royal collection of plate under the English Commonwealth
Commonwealth of England
The Commonwealth of England was the republic which ruled first England, and then Ireland and Scotland from 1649 to 1660. Between 1653–1659 it was known as the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland...
.
As a secular piece the cup would be an almost unique survival at this level of quality, "the one representative left to us of medieval secular plate in its most sumptuous development". Although French plate in silver and gold was made in great quantities, and at a high level of quality, "French silver made prior to the early 19th century is probably scarcer than that of any other European country." The cost of even very skilled labour was low compared to that of the materials, and in the absence of any reliable way of either depositing or investing money, it was turned into lavish objects, in the knowledge that it might well need to be sold or melted down to finance some future project. If it survived long enough to become old-fashioned it was likely to be melted down and remodelled in a new style.
There are only four other known survivals, secular or religious, of basse taille enamel on gold, one the small Salting
George Salting
George Salting was an Australian-born British art collector of pictures and many other categories of art, whose works were left to the National Gallery, London, Victoria & Albert Museum and British Museum.-Early life:...
Reliquary
Reliquary
A reliquary is a container for relics. These may be the physical remains of saints, such as bones, pieces of clothing, or some object associated with saints or other religious figures...
, also in the British Museum, and none as fine as the cup. The "King John Cup" in King's Lynn
King's Lynn
King's Lynn is a sea port and market town in the ceremonial county of Norfolk in the East of England. It is situated north of London and west of Norwich. The population of the town is 42,800....
, of ca. 1340, silver-gilt
Silver-gilt
Silver-gilt or gilded/gilt silver, sometimes known in American English by the French term vermeil, is silver gilded with gold. Most large objects made in goldsmithing that appear to be gold are actually silver-gilt; for example most sporting trophies, medals , and many crown jewels...
with transparent enamel, is the best example of basse-taille work probably made in England; the metalwork expert Herbert Maryon describes this and the Royal Gold Cup as the "two examples of outstanding merit, unsurpassed in any collection." However it is unclear if most of the enamel at King's Lynn is original. The closest comparison to the Royal Gold Cup is perhaps the silver-gilt Mérode Cup
Mérode Cup
The Mérode Cup is a medieval silver-gilt cup decorated with finely engraved birds, fruit and vine leaves made in France in Burgundy in about 1400 and named for the ancient Belgian family of Mérode, to whom it once belonged....
of about 1400, which is the only surviving medieval example of plique á jour enamel, a difficult technique which creates a see-through effect like stained glass. A silver-gilt cup in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam of before 1376 has no enamels or gems, and a different shape, but offers an interesting comparison as it has a tripod stand with winged grotesques as legs, a short stem, and the cover has both an elaborate finial and a raised decorated strip around the rim, so that all the altered aspects of the Royal Gold Cup are present.
Iconography
The cycle of scenes from the life of Saint Agnes, and that of her foster-sister Saint EmerentianaSaint Emerentiana
Saint Emerentiana was a Roman martyr, who lived in the 3rd century.According to Christian hagiography, Emerentiana's mother was the wet nurse and nanny of Saint Agnes, a rich Roman heiress who was martyred after refusing her engagement due to her Christian religion. Emerentiana herself was a...
, follows the traditional story of Golden Legend
Golden Legend
The Golden Legend is a collection of hagiographies by Jacobus de Voragine that became a late medieval bestseller. More than a thousand manuscripts of the text have survived, compared to twenty or so of its nearest rivals...
of Jacobus de Voragine
Jacobus de Voragine
Blessed Jacobus de Varagine or Voragine was an Italian chronicler and archbishop of Genoa. He was the author, or more accurately the compiler, of Legenda Aurea, the Golden Legend, a collection of the legendary lives of the greater saints of the medieval church that was one of the most popular...
; the most popular compilation of hagiographies of the age, whose wording corresponds to some of the inscriptions in banderoles or scrolls that explain the scenes. Other texts are quotations from the Latin Vulgate
Vulgate
The Vulgate is a late 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. It was largely the work of St. Jerome, who was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 to make a revision of the old Latin translations...
Bible, mostly derived from the liturgy
Liturgy
Liturgy is either the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions or a more precise term that distinguishes between those religious groups who believe their ritual requires the "people" to do the "work" of responding to the priest, and those...
for St Agnes' feast day, and it has been suggested that the two rings of pearls also reflect the language of the chants for these services. It seems likely that clerical
Clergy
Clergy is the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given religion. A clergyman, churchman or cleric is a member of the clergy, especially one who is a priest, preacher, pastor, or other religious professional....
advice was taken, at least over the texts used in the inscriptions. It is tempting to relate the depiction of the story, with its "distinct and vivid tableaux, well suited to adaptation for performance" to medieval drama, often a source for iconography
Iconography
Iconography is the branch of art history which studies the identification, description, and the interpretation of the content of images. The word iconography literally means "image writing", and comes from the Greek "image" and "to write". A secondary meaning is the painting of icons in the...
, but the fragmentary records mention no dramas on the life of St Agnes that are close in time or place to the origin of the cup.
Agnes and her sister were virgins of Rome in the time of the Emperor Constantine
Constantine I
Constantine the Great , also known as Constantine I or Saint Constantine, was Roman Emperor from 306 to 337. Well known for being the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity, Constantine and co-Emperor Licinius issued the Edict of Milan in 313, which proclaimed religious tolerance of all...
, though all figures are shown in contemporary 14th-century dress. The story begins on the inside of the bowl, which has a round medallion showing St Agnes kneeling before a bearded figure, representing her teacher, wearing a chaperon
Chaperon (headgear)
Chaperon was a form of hood or, later, highly versatile hat worn in all parts of Western Europe in the Middle Ages. Initially a utilitarian garment, it first grew a long partly decorative tail behind, and then developed into a complex, versatile and expensive headgear after what was originally the...
. She holds a book inscribed Miserere mei Deus sancte ("Have pity on me, Holy God"), while a banderole says In corde meo abscondi eloquia tua ut non peccem tibi ("Thy words have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee". ). The top of the cover continues the story up to Agnes' martyrdom in five scenes, shown with a continuous groundline from which small rocks rise up to demarcate the scenes; on the base trees perform this function. Sunrays radiate from the centre of the cover above all the scenes; the red enamel which once filled these is nearly all lost.
In the first scene the two girls are returning from school, Agnes accompanied by her punning attribute
Emblem
An emblem is a pictorial image, abstract or representational, that epitomizes a concept — e.g., a moral truth, or an allegory — or that represents a person, such as a king or saint.-Distinction: emblem and symbol:...
, a lamb
Domestic sheep
Sheep are quadrupedal, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Like all ruminants, sheep are members of the order Artiodactyla, the even-toed ungulates. Although the name "sheep" applies to many species in the genus Ovis, in everyday usage it almost always refers to Ovis aries...
with a cruciform halo
Halo (religious iconography)
A halo is a ring of light that surrounds a person in art. They have been used in the iconography of many religions to indicate holy or sacred figures, and have at various periods also been used in images of rulers or heroes...
, and carrying a martyr's palm
Arecaceae
Arecaceae or Palmae , are a family of flowering plants, the only family in the monocot order Arecales. There are roughly 202 currently known genera with around 2600 species, most of which are restricted to tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate climates...
. They are accosted by Procopius, the young son of the Prefect of Rome, who has fallen in love with Agnes and shows her an open casket of jewels to persuade her to marry him. The inside of the casket is white, the only colour of opaque enamel in the original work, used only for a few highlights like the tiny area of the host held by Christ on the inside of the cover. Agnes rejects him, with the words Illi sum desponsata cui angeli serviunt ("I am betrothed to him who the angels serve") in a banderole above. In the Caxton her rejection is unequivocal and not polite, and she points out that her heavenly fiancé has promised her much better jewels. The Prefect stands behind his son, and in the next scene has sentenced her to serve in a brothel
Brothel
Brothels are business establishments where patrons can engage in sexual activities with prostitutes. Brothels are known under a variety of names, including bordello, cathouse, knocking shop, whorehouse, strumpet house, sporting house, house of ill repute, house of prostitution, and bawdy house...
for being a Christian who refuses to sacrifice to the goddess Vesta
Vesta (mythology)
Vesta was the virgin goddess of the hearth, home, and family in Roman religion. Vesta's presence was symbolized by the sacred fire that burned at her hearth and temples...
. Caxton's Legend fills in the intervening action:
Then made she of the bordel her oratory, ... All they that entered made honour and reverence to the great clearness that they saw about St. Agnes, and came out more devout and more clean than they entered. At last came the son of the provost with a great company for to accomplish his foul desires and lusts. And when he saw his fellows come out and issue all abashed, he mocked them and called them cowards. And then he, all araged, entered for to accomplish his evil will. And when he came to the clearness, he advanced him for to take the virgin, and anon the devil took him by the throat and strangled him that he fell down dead.In the next scene on the cup, Agnes stands outside the sentry box-like brothel, looking down at the Prefect's son who has been strangled to death by the devil crouched over him; a banderole reads Quo modo cecidisti qui mane oriebaris ("How has thou fallen that risest in the morning"), and the Prefect looks on sadly.
In the following scene Agnes has been moved by the Prefect's grief, and prayed for the son to be restored to life, which an angel has done. The repentant Procopius kneels before her, while she leans down to tell him Vade amplius noli peccare ("Go forth and sin no more"; from ). However the result of the miracle was that (in William Caxton
William Caxton
William Caxton was an English merchant, diplomat, writer and printer. As far as is known, he was the first English person to work as a printer and the first to introduce a printing press into England...
's translation) "the bishops of the idols made a great discord among the people, so that all they cried: Take away this sorceress and witch that turned men's minds and alieneth their wits". The Prefect is now sympathetic to Agnes but fears he will lose his position if he does nothing, so leaves the matter in the hands of another official; the two are seen talking together, with words from Nihil invenio cause in eam ("I find no cause against her") above. The last scene shows her martyrdom; she was sentenced to be burned but the flames part away from her so that finally the magistrate orders her killed by a spear. Her last words, from , are In manus tuas domine commendo animam meam ("Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit").
The scenes continue on the underside of the bowl, starting with Agnes' burial. A pall is being laid over her sarcophagus
Sarcophagus
A sarcophagus is a funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved or cut from stone. The word "sarcophagus" comes from the Greek σαρξ sarx meaning "flesh", and φαγειν phagein meaning "to eat", hence sarkophagus means "flesh-eating"; from the phrase lithos sarkophagos...
, whose red enamel has significant losses, which reveal clearly the engraved lines beneath. A tonsure
Tonsure
Tonsure is the traditional practice of Christian churches of cutting or shaving the hair from the scalp of clerics, monastics, and, in the Eastern Orthodox Church, all baptized members...
d priest with an aspergil
Aspergillum
An aspergillum is a liturgical implement used to sprinkle holy water. It comes in two common forms: a brush that is dipped in the water and shaken, and a perforated ball at the end of a short handle...
for sprinkling holy water
Holy water
Holy water is water that, in Catholicism, Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Lutheranism, Oriental Orthodoxy, and some other churches, has been sanctified by a priest for the purpose of baptism, the blessing of persons, places, and objects; or as a means of repelling evil.The use for baptism and...
and an acolyte
Acolyte
In many Christian denominations, an acolyte is anyone who performs ceremonial duties such as lighting altar candles. In other Christian Churches, the term is more specifically used for one who wishes to attain clergyhood.-Etymology:...
with a cross attend, with Emerentiana with halo to the left, and Agnes' mother to the right. The banderole above says Ecce quod concupivi iam teneo ("Behold what I have desired I now possess"). In the next scene pagans have arrived to disrupt the burial, and only Emerentiana has stayed, kneeling in prayer as she is pelted with rocks. The inscription reads Veni soror mea mecum in gloria ("Come with me my sister into glory"). She dies, and the following scene shows the two martyrs, accompanied by two other unnamed female martyrs (in the source "a great multitude of virgins clad in vestments of gold and silver"), as they appear in a vision to Agnes' friends eight days after her death, as they gather round her sarcophagus, into which Emerentiana's body has also been placed.
The next scene shows the sarcophagus with Constantina
Constantina
Constantina , and later known as Saint Constance, was the eldest daughter of Roman Emperor Constantine the Great and his second wife Fausta, daughter of Emperor Maximian...
, the daughter of the Emperor Constantine, asleep on top of it, wearing a crown. She has been afflicted with leprosy
Leprosy
Leprosy or Hansen's disease is a chronic disease caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis. Named after physician Gerhard Armauer Hansen, leprosy is primarily a granulomatous disease of the peripheral nerves and mucosa of the upper respiratory tract; skin lesions...
, and heard of the vision at Agnes' tomb, and come to pray there. The presence at left of a young man on crutches, not in the source, suggests that others are doing the same. The sleeping woman beside the tomb is either another such, or an attendant on the princess. As Constantina sleeps, Agnes, holding her lamb, appears to her, saying Si in xpm (Christum) credideris sanaberis ("If you believe in Christ you will be healed", an adaptation of the text in the source). In the final scene, the cured, and baptized, Constantina tells her crowned father the story, with the inscription Hec est virgo sapiens una de numero prudencium ("This is a wise virgin, one of the number of the prudent").
The inside of the cover has a circular enamel medallion with worked gold borders, showing a half-length Christ making a blessing gesture and holding a chalice
Chalice
A chalice is a goblet or footed cup intended to hold a drink. This can also refer to;* Holy Chalice, the vessel which Jesus used at the Last Supper to serve the wine* Chalice , a type of smoking pipe...
with a host inside. Around him is a sun-like aureole in red. Below the two added cylinders on the stem, the four traditional symbols of the Evangelists run round the sloping foot of the cup, in pairs facing each other, above a green ground area. Lightbown notes this as "another sign of care for naturalistic effect".
Construction and techniques
Each of the cover, main body, and foot of the cup is made of an inner and outer plate, and the enamelled medallions inside the cover and bowl were made separately before attachment. The enamel areas may have been designed by the goldsmith, or an artist more used to painting on panels or in manuscripts may have produced drawings. A number of names of goldsmiths appear in records of the period, but in contrast to many contemporary manuscripts, the few surviving goldsmith's pieces are not signed or marked and cannot be matched to any names. Not a single maker's name is recorded for the more than 3,000 items in precious metal in the inventory mentioned above of the possessions of Berry's brother Anjou. High quality courtly work like the cup is conventionally assigned to Paris in the absence of other stylistic evidence; this is where other documentary sources locate the main concentration of goldsmiths.The process for creating the basse-taille
Basse-taille
Basse-taille is an enamelling technique in which the artist creates a low-relief pattern in metal, usually silver or gold, by engraving or chasing. The entire pattern is created in such a way that its highest point is lower than the surrounding metal...
enamel areas began by marking the outline of the design and the main internal outlines on the gold with a tool called a "tracer". Then the interior area was worked with chasing tools
Repoussé and chasing
Repoussé or repoussage is a metalworking technique in which a malleable metal is ornamented or shaped by hammering from the reverse side to create a design in low relief. There are few techniques that offer such diversity of expression while still being relatively economical...
, hammering and punching rather than cutting, to form a shallow recess to hold the enamel. The more important parts of the design were modelled by varying the depth of the surface to produce different intensities of colour when the translucent enamel was added; the gold under folds of drapery often rises near the surface to create a paler highlight. In many of the recessed areas decoration was added by either engraving or punching which would show through the translucent enamel, or to facet the background so the reflections change as the viewing angle changes slightly. In these last-mentioned areas cutting tools were used. Most of the background outside the enamelled areas was decorated in the same way. After the enamel was added and fired the surfaces were cleaned up, made good and polished, including removing by scraping any bumps showing through on the reverse of the metal.
The enamel lies flush with the gold surfaces; it was a preparation of finely ground glass paste applied with great care to the prepared recessed areas, and then fired. Different colours of enamel meet each other with a neat boundary, which was achieved by firing one colour with a retaining border of gum tragacanth before adding the next. The difficulty was increased by the application of tints of a different colour to a base shade of enamel before firing, so that the added colour blends gradually into the background colour around the edges of the tinted area. This is especially used on "flux", or colourless enamel, as in the ground areas, rocks and trees. Flux was also used for flesh areas as on a gold background it darkens slightly when fired to a suitable colour for skin. The rouge clair or "ruby glass" red, used so effectively here, was made by adding tiny particles of copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
, silver and gold to the glass; here scientific tests have shown that copper was used. After firing the enamel was polished flush with the surrounding metal. The technique had been known to the Ancient Romans (see the Lycurgus Cup
Lycurgus cup
The Lycurgus Cup is a Roman glass cage cup now in the British Museum, made of a dichroic glass, which shows a different colour depending on whether or not light is passing through it; red when lit from behind and green when lit from in front...
, also in the British Museum), but was lost at the end of the Middle Ages until the 17th century. The added cylinders use opaque enamel, except for the red on the Tudor roses, which is translucent rouge clair, of a similar composition to the original reds. Translucent enamel is more fragile than opaque, and medieval survivals in good condition are very rare.
Further reading
- "Maryon (1951)": Maryon, Herbert. "New Light on the Royal Gold Cup". The British Museum Quarterly, Vol. 16, No. 2, April 1951.
- Meiss, Millard. French painting in the time of Jean de Berry: The late XIV century and the patronage of the duke (two vols). Phaidon, 1967
- Read, Sir Charles Hercules. The Royal Gold Cup of the Kings of France and England, now preserved in the British Museum. Vetusta MonumentaVetusta MonumentaVetusta Monumenta is the title of a published series of illustrated antiquarian papers on ancient buildings, sites, and artefacts, mostly those of Britain, published at irregular intervals between 1718 and 1906 by the Society of Antiquaries of London...
Volume 7, part 3, 1904
External links
- Stein, Wendy A. "Patronage of Jean de Berry (1340–1416)". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of ArtMetropolitan Museum of ArtThe Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
, 2000–. (May 2009) - In-Depth Studies: France in 1400, from the Louvre
- Richard II's Treasure; the Riches of a Medieval King, from The Institute of Historical Research and Royal Holloway, University of London.