Altar Furniture Removed from

San Domenico

Gilded silver chalice and paten (ca. 1304)

These items, which are now in the Galleria Nazionale (Room 17), are described in the page on San Domenico Vecchio.

Patens (early 14th century)

These two patens, one with an enamel of the Resurrection and the other with an enamel of St James and a pilgrim, were rediscovered under the floor of the choir of San Domenico in 1954, when they were moved to the Galleria Nazionale (Room 17).  Each of them had been recorded, along with an accompanying chalice, in the sacristy in the inventories of 1430 and 1458.  Both chalices were subsequently lost, but that corresponding to the first patens had been inscribed with the signatures of the Sienese Tondino di Guerrino and Andrea Riguardi.  It is likely that both patens also came from this workshop.

Gilded silver paten (mid 14th century)

This paten, which has an enamel of the Annunciation at its centre, was rediscovered under the floor of the choir of San Domenico in 1954, when it was moved to the Galleria Nazionale (Room 17).  It had been recorded in the sacristy in the inventories of 1430 and 1458.  The accompanying chalice, which was subsequently lost, had been inscribed with the signatures of the Sienese Ugolino di Vieri and Viva di Lando, the artists who were also responsible for the Reliquary of the Corporal (1337) in the Duomo, Orvieto.

Gilded silver chalice and paten (late 14th century)

These objects, which were recorded in the sacristy of San Domenico in the inventories from 1417 onwards, remained there until 1863, when they were moved to the Galleria Nazionale (Room 17).  The chalice is inscribed with the signature of Cataluccio da Todi, who lived in Perugia in the period 1374 - 87.

Reliquary of St Anne (late 14th century)

This reliquary was recorded in the sacristy of San Domenico in the inventories from 1430 onwards and remained there until 1863, when it was moved to the Galleria Nazionale (Room 17).   It may have been made in Todi by a follower of Cataluccio da Todi.   The niche in the upper register once contained two of the fingers of St Anne, the mother of the Virgin, but these were apparently stolen in 1609.  

Reliquary of St Juliana (14th century)

The relics of St Juliana were translated from Cuma to Naples in 1207, and a fragment of her skull subsequently passed into the possession of the friars of San Domenico.   They enclosed it in a reliquary bust of the head of St Juliana, which was inscribed with the additional information that it had been made in Rome by Master William. 

In 1376, Bishop Andrea Bontempi persuaded the friars to give the relic and its reliquary to the nuns of what then became the Monastero di Santa Giuliana, and they enclosed it in a gilded copper tabernacle. 

The reliquary and its tabernacle accompanied the nuns from Santa Giuliana to Santa Maria di Monteluce in ca. 1862. 

• The reliquary appeared on the market in 1933 and subsequently found its way to the Metropolitan Museum, New York.

• The tabernacle is now in the Galleria Nazionale (Room 17).