Pair of relics

The pair of twin reliquaries consists of chiselled silver plates anchored to a wooden soul. Each artefact is characterized by a base consisting of two smooth rectangular feet surmounted by two voluminous profiles made of acanthus leaves flowing towards the cone-shaped stem. The latter reveals a ribbing and palm decoration ending with a small palmette knob; an ornament of radiating petals. A pair of symmetrical leaves, on which the great oval containing the relics lies a collar along which a festoon intersected by a run of rosettes. The teal is surrounded by a subtle engraving work with a sinuous leaf and rosette trellis. Two crowns of leaves and a lilac cross with small rays at the crossing of the arms constitute the termination of relics. The two artefacts, also analysed by Giovanni Boraccesi (2016, p.70), are distinguished by the letters A and B on the back, which contain in the order of forty-one and thirty-four relics accurately transcribed in an inventory prepared by Don Nicola Gesualdo del 1912 (Bruno 1994, pp. 69-70). On silver feet is the name of Luca de Samuele Cagnazzi, archdiocese of Altamurano, from which these relics were donated in 1844. The figure is also reported in an inventory of 1847 kept in the Archives of the Diocese of Altamura. On both relics, the stamp is stamped twice on the foot and on the side edge: Partenope's head profile with the letter N, denoting nostral or produced in the Kingdom, and the digit 8, corresponding to the silver title. This stamp was used between 1823 and 1872 (Catello, 1996, pp. 19-20).