UNKNOWN GOLDSMITH, German
(active in 1170s in Cologne)

Domed Head Reliquary

c. 1175
Gilt copper, champlevé enamel and walrus tusk on wood, height 45 cm
Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin

Numerous pieces of goldsmiths' work are linked with the patronage of Henry the Lion (1129-1195), Duke of Saxony and Bavaria. One of the finest of these is a reliquary made in Cologne, where the goldsmiths specialized in making reliquaries in the form of a church surmounted by a drum-shaped dome, and may have been intended to recall the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. It is known to have once housed the skull of St Gregory of Nazianzus, which was probably one of the relics Henry brought back from Constantinople.

Description of the reliquary: wooden core, champlevé on copper, gilded, reliefs and figures made of carved walrus tusk, floor section with email brun, feet cast in bronze and gilded.