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The Ardagh Chalice
The Ardagh Chalice, c. 8th century, silver, gilt copper, gold filigree, gold, gilt bronze, silver, polychrome glass, amber, rock crystal, 18 cm high, 19.5 cm in diameter at the rim, found in a hoard in the ringfort of Reerasta, near Ardagh, County Limerick, Ireland (National Museum of Ireland).
A conversation with Dr. Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank and Dr. Steven Zucker at the National Museum of Ireland. Created by Smarthistory.
Video transcript
(gentle piano music) - [Narrator 1] The central
right of Christianity is the Eucharist. That is the taking of
the bread and the wine in reference to the body
and blood of Christ. And so it follows that
religious communities put a tremendous amount of
effort into creating beautiful, luxurious objects for this ritual. And that could include a
plate to hold the wafer, which is known as a patent, and a glass or a chalice to hold the wine. And we're looking at an exceptional early example of a chalice that comes from around the
year 800 and is from Ireland. - [Narrator 2] This is the Ardagh Chalice. And this is considered
one of the finest examples of early medieval art generally, but certainly one of the best examples, if not the best example, of
early medieval metal working. So this chalice is made in three parts. We have a silver hemispherical bowl that has small handles attached to it. Then we have a gilt silver stem attached to the bowl with golden discs. And then, the foot of the chalice. It's very lustrous, and that's punctuated by
these design elements. We see circular bosses on the sides, and the lip is made of brass color. And then there's a band
with gold filigree. - [Narrator 1] And filigree
work is essentially wire work, in this case, gold wire
that is intertwined and elaborately patterned. - [Narrator 2] Within that band, we see what almost looks
like small circular enamels, but they're not quite. - [Narrator 1] True enamel
are grains of colored glass that are fired and fused together. This glass was actually cut to fit. - [Narrator 2] And the filigree is so fine that it's almost impossible
to make out the details. But if you are looking through
a camera and you can zoom in, you can see beasts. You can see birds. - [Narrator 1] And in the surface
of the silver bowl itself, you can see an inscription with
a kind of square lettering. It is quite similar to the
painted letters that we see, for instance, in the
"Lindisfarne Gospels". - [Narrator 2] What that inscription says is the names of the 12
apostles except for Judas, who is substituted with the name of Paul. On the stem, there are spiral designs. And that is related to designs brought from from mainland Europe. The Celtic peoples,
when they migrate here, bring those traditions with them - [Narrator 1] But Celtic
art comes to Ireland in the pre-Christian era. Nevertheless, those designs are adopted into a broader vocabulary and become part of the Christian tradition when it is established in Ireland. - [Narrator 2] And we
could say the same thing about the elaborate interlace
in the filigree work. This looks similar to the type of interlace work in Northumbria or in the metalworking objects that we find at places
like Sutton Hoo in England. - [Narrator 1] But in order to see all of the work of the chalice, it would have to have been tipped up, and then the bottom is revealed. - [Narrator 2] There's a
mirror placed underneath this so that we can see below the chalice. And there's another golden
disc with more filigree. And then there's also
rock crystal or quartz. The rock crystal would've been imported. There is also small pieces
of amber on this chalice that would've been likewise
imported from the Baltic region. Typically, people call this
type of art Insular art, meaning from the isles of
Ireland and Great Britain, and that it's really looking inward. But what these materials demonstrate is that people were trading and acquiring things from elsewhere. - [Narrator 1] In fact, the
tradition of elaborate chalices can be found at quite a
distance in this period. One could look to the Byzantine Empire and their precious goblets. - [Narrator 2] What it suggests is that artists in different places were looking to ancient Roman prototypes. When this was made in the eighth century, we do not have large churches
being constructed in Ireland. What we find are smaller structures. And in textual records, it's noted that churches
were often built in wood, and so they no longer survive. What that suggests to us, too, is that people were
channeling their energy, their time, and their resources into finely crafted
objects like this chalice or the patent that we see near us. - [Narrator 1] And given
Ireland's violent history of invasions by Vikings
and by other outsiders, one of the reasons that
objects like this survived is that they were portable. They could be hidden, and
they could be safeguarded. - [Narrator 2] This was found buried along with an unadorned bronze chalice
and several other objects, which suggests that it was so precious that at some point someone
decided it needed to be buried, perhaps as a dedication
or votive offering, but more likely to protect it. - [Narrator 1] And so
we have in this chalice an object that both signifies
the great history of Irish art but also its connections to a wider world. (gentle piano music)