"Enamelled Vase. 13th century"; Maître Alpais ciborium

Photograph of a ciborium from Montmajour shown against drapery. The vessel was created around 1200 and is now in the collection of the Louvre, Paris (MRR 98). Originally used in church to store consecrated bread (the Host), the ciborium comprises a footed, hemispherical bowl and a domed cover. Both parts are decorated in champlevé enamel depicting busts of apostles and prophets enclosed in a continuous diamond-shaped grid with glass cabochons on its intersections. Four angel busts in high-relief decorate the knob surmounting the lid. The verses engraved on the rim of the bowl have been identified as pseudo-Kufic.