The Reliquary Effect by Cynthia Hahn

Author:Cynthia Hahn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Reaktion Books

63 New Sacristy, 1669–72, Alcobaça Monastery, Portugal.

64 New Sacristy (vault), 1669–72, Alcobaça Monastery, Portugal.

65 New Sacristy (detail), reliquary of St Sebastian: polychrome terracotta, glass (now missing: wooden arrows?), Alcobaça Monastery, Portugal.

Construction in terracotta, a relatively unusual medium for large-scale sculpture, made use of local technique and local craftsmen, probably from a succession of workshops. The largest figures, the seven full-figure sculptures, each weighing many hundreds of kilograms, were sliced into transverse rounds after construction to facilitate drying, firing and transport. There were also 82 busts fabricated, including the original seven in polychrome wood, and fourteen arms. Today only 68 busts and ten arms remain in the altarpiece; a few more are in storage. In addition to the ornamentation of the reliquary chapel, the workshops produced a large multi-figure group in a chapel in the church and the series of royal portraits mentioned above. Given the humidity of this locale, terracotta seems to have been a sagacious choice. Wood may not have lasted and the polychrome ceramic creates a lively effect that has survived for centuries. Once more, that effect is the simulation of heaven on earth centred on an altar – but here one experiences a benevolent heaven populated by attentive saints under a masonry dome with an oculus that dramatically illuminates the space and vividly recalls a more famous Pantheon (see illus. 64).

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