The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 18, 2024

Chasse

Chasse

c. 1225–50
copper: repoussé, engraved, stippled, and gilded; champlevé enamel; oak core
Overall: 24.7 x 24.2 x 10.4 cm (9 3/4 x 9 1/2 x 4 1/8 in.)
Gift of S. Livingstone Mather, Constance Mather Bishop, Philip R. Mather, Katherine Hoyt Cross, and Katherine Mather McLean in accordance with the wishes of Samuel Mather 1940.347
Location: 106C Medieval Treasury

Description

A chasse is a container with a pyramid-shaped roof that once served as a shrine for sacred relics. During the medieval period, chasses like this one were placed on church altars during high feast days to allow the faithful to venerate their sacred contents. The chasse’s design and imagery follow a common formula with Christ’s Crucifixion and Majesty decorating the central fields of its principal face. The back consists of two panels with identical decoration. Each features three busts of angels inscribed in medallions. Of the chasse’s lateral sides, only one is preserved in its original state, decorated with the figure of an imposing angel emerging from a bank of clouds. Here, the dark blue enamel background shows an even greater variety of rosettes and other decorative motifs, all engraved, stippled, and gilded like the ones on the other sides
  • (Durlacher Brothers, New York, NY)
    Samuel Mather (1851-1931), Cleveland, OH, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1940-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Milliken, William M. “Objects from the Samuel Mather Collection.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 28, no. 3 (1941). 34, 36 www.jstor.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 114 archive.org
    Winter, Edward. Enamel Art on Metals. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 1958. p. 194
    Ball, Victoria Kloss. Architecture and Interior Design. New York: Wiley, 1980. p. 214, fig. 5.69.
    Cleveland Museum of Art, and Holger A. Klein. Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2007. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 160-161, no. 55
    Eikelmann, Renate, Holger A. Klein, Stephen N. Fliegel, and Virginia Brilliant. The Cleveland Museum of Art: Meisterwerke von 300 bis 1550. München: Hirmer, 2007. p. 156-157, no. 59
    Fliegel, Stephen N. Resplendent Faith: Liturgical Treasuries of the Middle Ages. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2009. p. 21, fig. 15
  • {{cite web|title=Chasse|url=false|author=|year=c. 1225–50|access-date=18 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1940.347