Unidentified artists
Chalice (Cáliz)1575-1578

On view:

Geffen Galleries

Gilded metal chalice with a smooth cup, relief-carved collar, hexagonal rock crystal and amber-glass stem lantern, and a six-lobed base with embossed figural scenes

Gilt metal chalice with a wide gilded cup above a band of densely chased figural relief, rock crystal stem sections flanking a hexagonal reliquary node with glazed panels, and a lobed base with repoussé decoration and circular medallions.

Artist or Maker: Unidentified artists
Title: Chalice (Cáliz)
Place Made: Mexico City
Date Made: 1575-1578
Period: Colonial
Medium: Silver gilt, rock crystal, wood, and feathers
Dimensions: Height: 13 in. (33 cm); diameter: 9 in. (22.9 cm)
Credit Line: William Randolph Hearst Collection
Accession Number: 48.24.20
Classification: Furnishings
Collecting Area: Decorative Arts and Design
Curatorial Notes: Combining precious metals, feathers, boxwood carvings, and rock crystal, this vessel stands out as one of the most complex works of sixteenth-century Mexican silversmithing. Long used by Indigenous artists and invested with sacred meaning, these materials were redeployed after the Conquest to create Christian objects, demonstrating an important level of local agency.

Chalices were an indispensable part of the Eucharistic ritual, during which the bread and wine are believed to transform into the body and blood of Christ, and great expenditure was often lavished on their creation. The cup is decorated with images of the Four Evangelists, while the hexagonal knop encloses carved wood figures of the twelve apostles set against shimmering feather backgrounds. The foot is decorated with chased medallions with scenes of the Passion, flanked by the four Doctors of the Church and the Four Evangelists. The glass-covered lobes contain additional micro-carvings of the Stations of the Cross. Although mostly deteriorated, the feathers once glistened with ambient light and motion, helping to channel the spirit of the divine.

Ilona Katzew

2024
Provenance: Lionel “Spanish” Harris, Chesterfield Gardens, London, c. 1912–1920s; William Randolph Hearst, c. 1920s; Los Angeles Museum of History, Science, and Art (LACMA’s parent institution), 1948.
Selected Bibliography: Los Angeles County Museum of Art. New York: Thames and Hudson, 2003.
Levkoff, Mary L., ed. Hearst the collector. Exh. Cat. New York: Abrams and Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2008.
Rishel, Joseph J., and Suzanne L. Stratton, eds. The Arts in Latin America, 1492-1820. Exh. Cat. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art; Mexico City: Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso; and Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2006.
Katzew, Ilona, ed. Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800: Highlights from LACMA’s Collection. Exh. Cat. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; New York: DelMonico Books/D.A.P., 2022.
Katzew, Ilona, and Rachel Kaplan. “‘Like the Flame of Fire’: A New Look at the ‘Hearst’ Chalice.” Latin American and Latinx Visual Culture 3, no. 1 (2021): 4–29.
Selected Exhibition History: Contested Visions in the Spanish Colonial World. November 6, 2011 - January 29, 2012
Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. June 12, 2022 - October 30, 2022
Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. October 20, 2023 - January 28, 2024
Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. June 22, 2024 - September 08, 2024

Related Exhibitions

Unidentified artists
Chalice (Cáliz)1575-1578

On view:

Geffen Galleries

Artist or Maker: Unidentified artists
Title: Chalice (Cáliz)
Place Made: Mexico City
Date Made: 1575-1578
Period: Colonial
Medium: Silver gilt, rock crystal, wood, and feathers
Dimensions: Height: 13 in. (33 cm); diameter: 9 in. (22.9 cm)
Credit Line: William Randolph Hearst Collection
Accession Number: 48.24.20
Classification: Furnishings
Collecting Area: Decorative Arts and Design
Curatorial Notes: Combining precious metals, feathers, boxwood carvings, and rock crystal, this vessel stands out as one of the most complex works of sixteenth-century Mexican silversmithing. Long used by Indigenous artists and invested with sacred meaning, these materials were redeployed after the Conquest to create Christian objects, demonstrating an important level of local agency.

Chalices were an indispensable part of the Eucharistic ritual, during which the bread and wine are believed to transform into the body and blood of Christ, and great expenditure was often lavished on their creation. The cup is decorated with images of the Four Evangelists, while the hexagonal knop encloses carved wood figures of the twelve apostles set against shimmering feather backgrounds. The foot is decorated with chased medallions with scenes of the Passion, flanked by the four Doctors of the Church and the Four Evangelists. The glass-covered lobes contain additional micro-carvings of the Stations of the Cross. Although mostly deteriorated, the feathers once glistened with ambient light and motion, helping to channel the spirit of the divine.

Ilona Katzew

2024
Provenance: Lionel “Spanish” Harris, Chesterfield Gardens, London, c. 1912–1920s; William Randolph Hearst, c. 1920s; Los Angeles Museum of History, Science, and Art (LACMA’s parent institution), 1948.
Selected Bibliography: Los Angeles County Museum of Art. New York: Thames and Hudson, 2003.
Levkoff, Mary L., ed. Hearst the collector. Exh. Cat. New York: Abrams and Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2008.
Rishel, Joseph J., and Suzanne L. Stratton, eds. The Arts in Latin America, 1492-1820. Exh. Cat. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art; Mexico City: Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso; and Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2006.
Katzew, Ilona, ed. Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800: Highlights from LACMA’s Collection. Exh. Cat. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; New York: DelMonico Books/D.A.P., 2022.
Katzew, Ilona, and Rachel Kaplan. “‘Like the Flame of Fire’: A New Look at the ‘Hearst’ Chalice.” Latin American and Latinx Visual Culture 3, no. 1 (2021): 4–29.
Selected Exhibition History: Contested Visions in the Spanish Colonial World. November 6, 2011 - January 29, 2012
Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. June 12, 2022 - October 30, 2022
Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. October 20, 2023 - January 28, 2024
Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. June 22, 2024 - September 08, 2024