Bidspirit auction | A reliquary cross

A reliquary cross - Namban Art gilt copper alloy decoration en relief with black lacquered background: on one side ”Crucified Christ topped by a cartouche with the «Titulus Crucis» INRI and at His feet a skull and two crossed bones”; on the other side the Blessed Sacrament surmounted by the Dove of the Holy Spirit, flanked by fluttering Angels and at its feet a branch of Chinese apricot flowers with an inscription LOUVADO SEIA O SANCTISS[IM]º SACRAME[NT]º nippo-portuguese - Momoyama period (1573-1615) late European suspension ring, wear to the gilt Dimensões (altura x comprimento x largura) - 16,5 cm Notes: vd. CRESPO, Hugo Miguel - ”Jóias da Carreira da Índia”, Exhibition Catalogue.Lisbon: Museum of the Orient, 2014-2015, pp. 62 and 195, No. 110; and ”São Roque Antiguidades - 2017”, Catalogue. Lisbon: São Roque Antiques and Art Gallery, 2017, pp. 194-196, No. 153; and RIBEIRO, José Alberto (coord.) - ”Uma História de Assombro - Portugal - Japão - Séculos XVI-XX”, Catalogue of the Exhibition on display at the King D. Luís I Painting Gallery, Ajuda National Palace. Lisbon: DGPC - Ajuda National Palace / Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Diplomatic Institute, 2018, p. 65. Namban Reliquary Crucifixes are to be found in the Museu Nacional de Soares dos Reis in Oporto, Victoria & Albert Museum in London, Tokyo National Museum in Japan, Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapura and some private collections in Portugal. This rare reliquary cross is made from shakudō, a copper alloy (with gold, silver, and arsenic), lacquered in black (urushi), fire-gilt, and of a type of Japanese ware known as sawasa. Set with a later bronze loop on top for suspension, the cross is internally divided into small compartments to house relics—all now empty. It has two cross-shaped covers, front and back, cast in relief and finely chased for added detail, articulated and the upper ends on either side by hinges, and fastened with screws at the arms of the cross. One cover depicts the Crucified Christ with the sacred monogram ‘INRI’ (‘Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum’, or ‘Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews’) inscribed above, and, at his feet, a human skull and two crossed bones symbolising the Golgotha—literally ‘skull’. The other cover features, at the centre, the communal cup with the consecrated host above (depicting the Crucified Christ), crowned by the Holy Ghost in the form of a dove and flanked by two hovering angels surrounded by clouds. Beneath, occupying most of the longer arm of the cross, is a long, eight-row inscription in Portuguese. Written in capital letters, it reads ‘LOV // VADO // SEIA // O SA // NCTI // SS[IM] O // SACR // AM[EN] TO ’, or, in English translation, ‘Blessed be the Holy Sacrament’. Underneath the inscription is a branch of the Chinese plum, also known as Japanese apricot (Prunus mume), called ume in Japanese, with its typical five-petalled blossom—a symbol of beauty, purity and longevity, being the flower of winter and, alongside the clouds, one of the few purely Japanese elements present in the decoration of this reliquary cross. Modelled after an Iberian prototype, this reliquary cross—and the other surviving examples from this powerful yet turbulent period in Japan’s religious history—exemplifies the relationship between model and replica, epitomising the flow of objects and designs along transcontinental sea routes, a voyage of artistic forms that characterises the aesthetic exchanges between Portugal and Asia in the early modern period. It represents a rare and highly sophisticated production of religious and devotional objects within the sphere of Nanban art, a Japanese artistic production which, while incorporating European or Christian (kirishitan) themes, appealed both to curious, cosmopolitan natives and to the ‘Southern Barbarians’ (Nanbanjin), notably the Portuguese stationed in Asia. Serving not only as a focal point for meditation and spiritual exercises, but also as a repository of very rare and precious relics, such crucifixes reflect the devotional practices promoted by the devotio moderna, a movement that reached Asia alongside the teachings and proselytism of the Jesuits. Probably made in a single workshop, these objects were likely intended for a wealthy community of local Japanese converts, eager to hold in their hands relics of distant saints with whom they identified, and whose hagiographies formed a cornerstone of their doctrinal instruction by the Jesuits missionaries. They could also have been intended as diplomatic gifts from Jesuit priests to senior dignitaries at the regional Japanese courts whom they had managed to convert within the entourage of powerful daimyō (warlords). These conversion efforts continued until the first persecutions in 1587 and the martyrdoms at Nagasaki in 1597, persisting through to 1614 edict and ending with the expulsion of the Portuguese in 1639.