Coinciding with the celebration of the Compostela Holy Year, which has been extended until 2022, the Museum of the Ways of the Palace of Gaudí presents every month works exhibited in the Provisorato room, dedicated to the phenomenon of Santiago de Compostela in the Diocese of Astorga. This May, the ‘Piece of the Month’ highlights the hostiary from Vanidodes and Benamarías.
The Museo de los Caminos brings together a magnificent collection of goldsmith pieces from its extensive diocese, such as the piece of the month of May, which has been part of the collection since 1998. It is a silver piece chronologically complex because it is composed of pieces from different artistic periods of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Eucharistic vessels of this type are intended to reserve the consecrated Host and to carry the Blessed Sacrament to the sick, so their interior is gilded and derived from the Romanesque pyxides, with notable examples in the region of Astorga and the counties.
The work from Cepeda consists of a cylindrical box with a framed epigraphic frieze that reads: Ego sum panis vivus qui descendi, in reference to its Eucharistic function. It presents foot and pole that joins it to the main piece, unusual in the Diocese of Astorga, and that supposes probably an addition of the XVII century. During the previous century hardly any supports were used in the bases. The base has a square shape with lobed ends at the corners decorated with scallops or shells and a wide stepped flange. For these decorative motifs it is part of the permanent exhibition of the Provisorato room dedicated to the Camino de Santiago.
In addition, it is decorated with gadroons and cresting, from which starts a hexagonal piece that assembles the flattened spherical knot, decorated with vegetal motifs like leaves.
The lid, again showing in its profile small scallops and zoomorphic and vegetal figures on its surface, is finished with a conical piece formed by smooth ladles and a ball that serves as a base for the Crucified with which the piece culminates.
This piece from the Cepeda area of the Diocese of Astorga can be contemplated in the Provisorato Room, dedicated exclusively to the Santiago de Compostela phenomenon. The Gaudí Palace is open every day from 10:00 to 14:00 hours in the mornings and from 16:00 to 20:00 hours in the afternoons.