Guccio di Mannaia, 'Chalice for Pope Nicholas IV', 13th century

 

As the only work remaining of Sienese goldsmith Guccio di Mannaia, the chalice he created for Pope Nicholas IV in the late thirteenth century is an incredibly important work of art. Not only does it highlight the rich, opulent nature of papal commissions, but it proves the talent of Sienese goldsmiths and their resulting influence on painters and sculptors of the period. The chalice is innovative in shape and form, but it is striking first and foremost through the use of gold. It is an object that deserves to be viewed in the flesh, because of its reflective and therefore mimetic potential – like a bronze sculpture it is activated by light and should be experienced in the round as a three-dimensional, highly decorated art object. Its complicated design features an almost architectonic base, star-like as it spills out towards the viewer. The base builds up into the stem of the chalice which is decorated with an array of enamelled plaques featuring saints, prophets, angels and further divine figures, building up to the remarkably plain cup itself which sits atop the decorative detail.

As a Franciscan chalice – Pope Nicholas IV was the first Franciscan Pope – the amount of rich detail seems contrary to the vows of the Order, promising poverty, chastity and obedience. Yet, the Order had a history of commissioning highly detailed artworks and interior schemes, from the vita panels dedicated to Saint Clare and Saint Francis (who feature prominently on the design here), to the interior of San Francesco, the mother church at Assisi. Saint Francis features on the iconographic program of the chalice, receiving the stigmata to highlight his closeness to Christ. The fact that Francis is depicted in the guise of Christ on a chalice with all its accompanying Eucharistic potential furthers this relationship between Francis and the Redeemer, as well as the power and thaumaturgical credentials of the saint himself. Two inscriptions accompany the array of saints and evangelists, one that names Guccio as the maker of the object and a second that names the papal patron. Therefore, artist and commissioner are slotted into the holy program, imbuing them both with divine, prophetical importance. It is a religious object, it illustrates the power of the divine, but it is also a program of self-promotion and self-aggrandisement for patron and artist.

Guccio’s life and work remain a mystery. Along with papal commissions he produced seals. These included the design that became representative of Siena itself, reproduced by Simone Martini on his Maesta for the Palazzo Pubblico and accompanied by a prayer to the Virgin for protection of Siena as patron saint. Guccio’s work in multiple media clearly had a lasting impact. Equally, his chalice design changed the creation of these objects as the other Mendicant Orders began to adopt similar motifs. Chalices by later Sienese goldsmiths, including Bartolomeo di Tomme and Tondino di Guerrino, are virtual carbon copies of Guccio’s new form. Yet as mentioned, this was a celebration of the individual as much as it was a new and innovative chalice design. Guccio made sure his name was emblazoned on the side of the chalice, but Pope Nicholas IV furthered his claim by requesting a donor portrait on the design. Twinned with his inscription, his authority is furthered. Although donor portraits were becoming more common into the fourteenth century, on a chalice this was highly unusual. Nicholas IV was known for including himself in his commissions including the mosaic apse by Jacopo Torriti in Santa Maria Maggiore where the Pope appears kneeling before the Coronation of the Virgin as a direct, divine intercessor once again. The chalice is therefore innovative in form and composition, in elaborating the careers of Sienese goldsmiths of the late thirteenth century but fundamentally in artistic programs of self-glorification.