A Byzantine Chalice at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

I'm Evan Freeman. I'm Anne MacLennan. We're here at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, looking at a Byzantine chalice from around the year 600. This chalice is part of a larger body of objects known as the Ataruthi Treasure, which comprises 10 chalices, three censers, a strainer, and a dove. It really captures this moment where this region of North Syria was predominantly Christian right before the ascent of Islam in the region. They were, at the time, part of the Byzantine Empire, the East Roman Empire, which was centered in Constantinople. These objects are preserved because they were buried in the ground, probably in the 630s, around the time of the Arab invasion. Held for safekeeping, no doubt, thinking that the owners would soon return, but alas, they did not. So what we see is kind of a time capsule of church services from the very end of this period, Byzantine rule in the Middle East. These chalices were used in the celebration of the Divine Liturgy. The chalice would have sat on the altar next to the paten, or discos, the chalice holding the wine, and the discos holding the bread, which would be transformed into the body and blood of Christ, which was then consumed by the worshipers. The chalice consists of a large bowl for holding the wine, a flaring foot with a round knob, and we see a foliate ornament wrapping around the top of the bowl, adorning the arches on the knob, and around the bottom of the foot. I wonder if form follows function, and when we look at the gold gilt knob on the base, if that actually helped people hold this chalice. There are six saints depicted on the bowl of this chalice. They're situated under arches, an arcade. We see Christ on one side, the Virgin on the opposite side, a figure who is probably Saint John the Baptist. There's a deacon saint holding a censer. There's a military saint thrusting a spear through a serpent or dragon, and a youthful saint holding a staff and a book. Isn't that figure in the very front a youthful image of Christ with the cross markings on his halo? Yeah, I can imagine worshipers approaching the chalice to drink and seeing the image of Christ, which they would associate with what they were about to drink. And then another really specific association they might have made is that figure who probably is Saint Stephen, to whom the church was dedicated, and the inscription in Greek states of the Church of Saint Stephen of the village of Atteruthi, and he's carrying a censer just like the two that we find in this group of silver objects from the early Byzantine Empire. These censers, the same kind that Saint Stephen is shown swinging on the chalice, were used to offer incense during the celebration of the liturgy. It would have contained a charcoal, and incense would have been put on top of it, and the smoke would have filled the church with a pleasant odor. There are a lot of liturgical objects that show up with these saints on this chalice. We see a censer, we see gospel books, and the arches that they're standing beneath may even have evoked the inside of a Byzantine church, of a basilica, the kind in which these objects might have been used. I wonder too if any of the other images on this chalice were echoed in the church interior. I love that military saint in armor on the other side. There he is shown trying to slay a dragon. Maybe he's even one of the earliest depictions of Saint George. None of the figures are labeled. We don't see their names on here as becomes standard in later Byzantine iconography, so we're mostly guessing who they are by analyzing the things that they're holding, the way that they're dressed, their faces. One of the things I find so interesting about these figures is the way they are typical of early Byzantine art, and the way they're much more closely tied to classical art, and the way the figures look sort of naturalistic or lifelike. That really locates these objects in this moment of transition between the late Roman Empire and what would become known as the Byzantine Empire that endured through the Middle Ages and didn't end until 1453. Decorated with saints as so many of these chalices are, you get a sense that drinking from this chalice was not only an encounter with Christ whose blood it contained, but an encounter with the church understood as all these saints. This chalice is made mostly of silver, and its decoration was produced by hammering out the forms from inside, and then hammering and incising from the outside. And all of those details are so beautifully highlighted with the gold gilding. The chalice looks pretty static sitting here in the museum case, but we have to imagine it being carried in the great entrance when the deacons brought the chalice and patent with the bread and wine to the altar to be offered for the Eucharist. It would have been brought out from the altar to give the wine to the people, and these really polished silver and gold surfaces must have been highly reflective in the sunlight and candlelight during the celebration of the Eucharist. It would have been truly exquisite. This chalice would have been at the very center of Christian worship and the church for which it was made.