Portable altar Abbey Saint Remacle

3D ModelNoAI

Portable altar, mosan workshop, circa 1150-1170, wooden soul, cast and gilded brass, champlevé enamels, brown varnish, rock crystal, Saint-Remacle abbey of Stavelot. Musée du Cinquantenaire (Brussels, Belgium). Made with MetaShape form Agisoft.

The lower and upper registers of the tablet retrace the major episodes of the Passion of Christ, from the Last Supper to the Resurrection. The middle zone illustrates these episodes in the symbolic way by some prefigures drawn from the Old Testament. The allegories of the Church and the Synagogue are figured on either side of the central cavity. It shelters, under a crystal of rock, a parchment inscribed of the triple sanctus marking the beginning of the Eucharistic celebration. The sides of the box relate the martyrdom and death of the twelve apostles. The four figurines on which the altar rests represent the four evangelists at work.

For more updates, please follow me on Twitter at @GeoffreyMarchal.