Brescia Casket

The Brescia Casket, also called the lipsanotheca of Brescia (in Italian lipsanoteca^[1]) or reliquary of Brescia, is an ivory box, perhaps a reliquary,^[2] from the late 4th century, which is now in the Museo di Santa Giulia at San Salvatore in Brescia, Italy. It is a virtually unique survival of a complete Early Christian ivory box in generally good condition. The 36 subjects depicted on the box represent a wide range of the images found in the evolving Christian art of the period,^[3] and their identification has generated a great deal of art-historical discussion, though the high quality of the carving has never been in question. According to one scholar: "despite an abundance of resourceful and often astute exegesis, its date, use, provenance, and meaning remain among the most formidable and enduring enigmas in the study of early Christian art."^[4]

The complex iconography of the five faces is illustrated and identified below.

^ "Lipsanotheca" is from the Greek λειψανοθήκη, for relic-container.
^ It was certainly used as one later and this remains the most likely purpose. See Watson, 290 and 297, note 63. Only Bayens, 6 and elsewhere, suggests that it was a box for alms.
^ Watson says 35, Stella 36, but Watson counts the Ananias and Sapphira scenes as two; other sources give different figures, depending how the figures are divided in scenes.
^ Mc Grath, 257

[1] "Lipsanotheca" is from the Greek λειψανοθήκη, for relic-container.

[2] It was certainly used as one later and this remains the most likely purpose. See Watson, 290 and 297, note 63. Only Bayens, 6 and elsewhere, suggests that it was a box for alms.

[3] Watson says 35, Stella 36, but Watson counts the Ananias and Sapphira scenes as two; other sources give different figures, depending how the figures are divided in scenes.

[4] Mc Grath, 257

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