Byzantine Marble Reliquary with Christogram

This reliquary shaped as a perfectly cylindrical, domed architectural structure is quite unique. The reliquaries made of precious gold, silver, ivory or marble were important art works of Late Antique and Early Christian art. As a container which includes a lid, it links closely to the type of pyxides and caskets, usually shaped as rounded or rectangular lidded boxes which had a broad use as objects of daily life in Greek and Roman antiquity.

With the diffusion of Christianism, the same shape became popular for the specific containers which had a devotional origin (a reliquary as safekeeping of a holy relics or other sacred objects) or liturgical function (a pyxis as container for the consecrated bread, or to hold incense). In a church, they would be placed under the altar table in a recess, or a niche inside the church’s sanctuary. Depending on the material employed for the execution, the walls of the reliquaries were lavishly decorated with figural friezes representing saints in architectural surrounding or scenes from the life of Christ or saints, either incised in silver, modeled with gilding and niello, or carved in relieves in exquisite ivory or marble.

Sometimes the reliquaries received a more complex architectural shape being designed as a sarcophagus with a high vaulted gabled lid or a sanctuary with the arcaded walls. The foundation of this reliquary is marked by a few horizontal subdivisions which forms a level for the three shallow steps, which is surrounded by the row of round columns. Each is placed on a low rectangular base and surmounted by the impost capital. Such capitals (a uniquely Byzantine type, created possibly in Constantinople) are usually decorated with deeply carved vegetal motives. Here, instead, the capitals are plain; they support the arcade consisting of six individual arches ornamented with ovae. The columns are backed by the pillars; the combination produces a spatial depth; and the opportunity was used by the sculptor to divide the posts of the arches from the wall. 10 This creates a kind of an openwork not immediately perceived. The inter-space on the wall is occupied by six medallions with carved crosses.

The arcade holds a heavy and well-structured architrave. The latter serves as a transition to the cupola and consists of two parts: the lower, belonged to the body of the reliquary, has a frieze of the stylized garlands imitating the Roman fruit and plant garlands. The upper, which belongs to the lid, is marked by a kymation. The cupola’s dimensions, shape and decoration fit perfectly the upper part of the body and aperture, especially because the design is based on the same six arched columns of smaller scale. This time, the columns also support the architectural elements with undulations which are forming the pointed arches narrowing toward the top. When seen from above, these elements shape a beautiful five-pointed star with a medallion at its heart presenting the christogram.

The shape of a circular edifice surrounded by columns, tholos, had a long tradition in the history of Greek shrines. Originated in the Archaic period, it remained popular with Roman architects. In the Byzantine architecture, this circular structure received the cupola-shaped roof. Used for the funerary monuments, it usually has two floors. The most famous surviving early Byzantine building which is a close parallel to this recipient is the Theoderic mausoleum constructed in Ravenna in AD 520 to accept the remains of Theoderic, the Ostrogoth king. Taking in the account the importance of the symbolism in ornamentation, this reliquary would recall an important existing Christian sanctuary, possibly situated in Constantinople or Jerusalem. Such was the rotunda called Anastasis (Greek, Resurrection) in the Holy Sepulchre Church in Jerusalem built by the Emperor Constantine in the 4th century A.D. Its original construction was not preserved; the marble reliquary could be the most faithful replica of this historic monument.

The elaborate modeling of this reliquary makes it a true masterpiece of the early Byzantine decorative arts. The marble wall is so thin in places that it is becoming translucent. The openwork relates the carving to the so-called vasa diatreta, the most exclusive late Roman cage-cups made by cutting from a thick glass. It is highly possible that the intercolumnia in the lower level were decorated with the inlaid wood or ivory plaques, or even the enameled plaques, with the paintings of saints.

Complete; a few scratches; remains of encrustation.

Ex- private family collection, Vienna, Austria, prior to 1981.

DRANDAKI A., PAPANIKOLA-BAKIRTZI D., TOURTA A., eds., Heaven & Earth: Art of Byzantium from Greek Collections, Athens, 2013, pp. 118-119, nos. 38-39. VOLBACH W.F., Elfenbeinarbeiten der Spätantike und des frühen Mittelalters, Mainz/Rhine, 1952, pp. 77ff. WEITZMANN K., ed., Age of Spirituality: Late Antique and Early Christian Art, Third to Seven Century, New York, 1977, pp. 631-632, nos. 569-570.