Chalice

Made by fusion, the chalice is characterized by a rich decoration of great light-and-shade effect with volutes and plant racemes intersected by shoots, bunches of grapes and protruding cherub heads. Three small half-length figures start from the foot, adorned with bright ornamental elements; a moulded collar separates the base from the pyramid-shaped knot, also richly adorned with phytoformic motifs and little angels among which the hieratic figure of the Virgin stands out. A tulip bulb holds the chalice's saucer with a gilded silver cup, worked in jour, with an intricate vegetable decoration with winged cherubs. On the edge of the foot are imprinted three punches, difficult to read because they are worn: a letter N can be seen in the stamp of the silversmith, an A in the consular one, a vague AP in the art one. The production of this type of chalices will have great diffusion, on stereotypical models, in the Neapolitan workshops between the end of the seventeenth and the first half of the eighteenth century.