Its date is uncertain, from roughly 1435 to the end of the 15th century; the vegetable motif in the stem is reminiscent of some of Leonardo Da Vinci’s architectural work. It may have been created as a drinking cup, and later transformed into a monstrance after it had been donated to the Milan's Cathedral. The article on the website correctly notes that it is different from the more classically Roman form of monstrance, but this is not a particular feature of the Ambrosian tradition; monstrances of this kind were fairly common before the Counter-Reformation era.
My comment: Before it became a monstrance, it could have been someone's drinking cup! Now that's my kind of drinking cup. When I was a teenager, there was a gas station that gave away lovely drinking cups (glasses) with the Warner Brothers' cartoon characters on them. You could collect a whole set. I loved those glasses! Then I went off to the seminary only to return home for a break and to find that they were no longer at home. But I think the drinking cup above my mom would have saved!
Thats a some a cup!
1 comment:
It's beautiful, Father. And quite amazing, considering how old it is.
I'd like to think it had not been used for other purposes before. I like to think that everything Our Lord used was brand new - had not been used and would not be used for other purposes.
His first dwelling on earth - the Blessed Mother - is a Virgin before and after His birth.
The little donkey on which He used on His triumphant entry to Jerusalem had never been ridden before [must have been a very young donkey, that's why he had his mother with him.]
His "borrowed tomb" was newly hewn from the rock. I doubt Joseph of Arimathea had the nerve to use it for himself or his family after the Lord's resurrection.
I am in charge of purchasing altar linens for our TLM. I make sure the "fair linen" [the top white linen which symbolizes His shroud] is brand new. Or if vintage, had been used only for the same purpose.
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