Reliquary Shrine (de Touyl)

The Reliquary Shrine is an especially complex 14th century container for relics, now in The Cloisters, New York. It is made from translucent enamel, gilt-silver and paint, and dated to c 1325–50. Although first mentioned in a convent in Budapest, its style and influences betrays French craftsmanship. It has been proposed to be attributed by the Met to Jean de Toul written Jehan de Touyl in one French source from 1328, a French goldsmith about whom little is known, but who is associated with a small number of works with similar stylistic characteristics.^[1]

The centerpiece shows the enthroned^[2] Virgin and the infant Jesus, the hinged wings are painted on both sides^[3] with scenes from the Annunciation to the childhood of Jesus.^[3] In medieval Christianity, the holiest of relics were those associated with the Virgin and Child.^[4]