Введение Gold and silver

Gold and silver

The Corridor entitled "Mirabilia", which houses admirable masterpieces of Sicilian artistic craftsmanship, opens with a selection of objects for liturgical use, in gold or silver, largely coming from local churches. The Chalice, the Monstrance and the Pyx in embossed and chiseled gold were part of the sumptuous furnishings of the local church of the Jesuit College. The first two, created around 1680 by Pietro Juvarra from Messina and his sons, Eutichio and Sebastiano, strike us for the refinement of the modeling and the very minute embossing and chisel workmanship, which tends to refract the light creating lively chiaroscuro effects, according to a taste spread by the great Tuscan master Benvenuto Cellini. Gabriele Bertolino from Trapani was responsible for the Pyx which completes the precious gold series, which the master created in 1716 following the style of the Messina masters. Among the silver works, noteworthy is the monumental late seventeenth-century Repository made in Trapani, intended to contain the Blessed Sacrament and to be solemnly exhibited in the Jesuit church of the College on the occasion of the solemn adoration of Holy Thursday. Overall, the two figures of angel-telamons who support the urn stand out for the refinement of the workmanship and the elegant suppleness of the lines, on whose facades some episodes from the Old Testament are depicted which prefigure the institution of the Eucharist.