Liturgical Objects Views
Churches and abbeys, which served as centers of monastic life during the Middle Ages (1000–1500), sprang up across Europe, and their decoration extended beyond sculpture and stained glass to interior furnishings. The bishop or abbot sought to inspire meditation among the parishioners on the spiritual as well as material splendor of the Church through the use of exquisitely wrought and embellished liturgical objects. When not in use, these objects were stored in a sacristy; as a number of objects were collected, they were transferred to a treasury. Related Organization: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, TheWhere:Region: Country Club Plaza AreaPhone: 816-751-1ARTVisit Event Website When:Date(s): Aug. 25, 2010-Feb. 24, 2011Time: 10am-4pm, Wed.; 10am-9pm, Thu.-Fri.; 10am-5pm, Sat.; Noon-5pm, Sun.Map / Directions:
The term liturgy refers to the rites and ceremonies prescribed by the Eastern and Western Church for communal worship. The central focus of the liturgy is the Eucharist, in which Christians take consecrated wine and bread in commemoration of the Last Supper and Christ's death. While liturgical practices were codified gradually over several centuries and varied locally, eucharistic vessels for the bread and wine, the paten, and the chalice remained indispensable (1986.3.1-15; 47.101.26-29). The liturgy in both the Eastern and Western Church necessitated a variety of additional objects such as books, often richly decorated (17.190.134), for prayers, music, and Old and New Testament readings (1992.238); crosses for the altar and to be carried in procession (63.12; 1993.163); censers for the burning of incense; and lighting devices for the sanctuary (2002.483.7).
Because of their sacred function, liturgical objects were often crafted of the most precious materials. In a written account of Justinian's famed sixth-century church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, one author tells of hundreds of vessels and furnishings made of pure gold with pearls and precious stones. Emulating the splendors of Byzantium in his lavish commissions for the royal abbey church of Saint-Denis, north of Paris, Abbot Suger exclaimed in the 1140s: If golden pouring vessels, golden vials, golden little mortars used to serve O… to collect the blood of goats or calves, how much more must golden vessels, precious stones, and whatever is most valued 9… be laid out
Following Diuuml;rer's lead, when we look at the lavish liturgical objects in collections of medieval art, we should see how these objects lead us from the visible to the invisible reality. A similar point can be made by examining facing pages from an eleventh century manuscript from Regensburg, the Uta Codex:
Liturgical Objects Images
