The Great Chalice Adorned with Figures (1640): Art, History and Details

The Great Chalice Adorned with Figures (1640) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Wenceslaus Hollar (Bohemian, 1607–1677).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Chalices traditionally hold the priest’s consecrated wine during Catholic Mass. Wenceslaus Hollar made this etching of an over-life-size chalice from a drawing in the collection of his patron, the English 14th Earl of Arundel. The elaborate decoration consists of scenes from the suffering and death of Christ, standing saints and apostles on the stem, and a pointed foot inspired by Moorish designs (a style prominent in Spain and North Africa featuring distinctive pointed arches). The barely discernable crescent shape just above the rim suggests a hovering Eucharistic wafer, representing the body of Christ.

Object facts

• Title: The Great Chalice Adorned with Figures
• Date: 1640
• Creator attribution: Wenceslaus Hollar (Bohemian, 1607–1677)
• Culture: Bohemia
• Type: Print
• Technique: etching
• Dimensions: Sheet: 46.7 x 24.5 cm (18 3/8 x 9 5/8 in.)
• Collection: PR - Etching
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1924.648

A detail from the museum

Dating back to the Romanesque period, architectural niches populated by Christ's apostles—like those seen on the stem of this chalice—are a common feature on church facades.

Collection credit

Gift of Leonard C. Hanna Jr.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.