Pyx
Unknown Artist
c.1300
Medium
silver and gilt silver
Dimensions
4.8 × 7.8 cm
Classification
Metalwork
Department
Medieval Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of the John B. Putnam Foundation
Accession Number
1970.125
About this artwork
A pyx is a container designed to hold the consecrated Eucharist wafers between masses. It was probably used by the clergy to administer communion to the sick and dying; its small size made it easily portable. The decoration relates to similar liturgical objects made in the ecclesiastical and artistic center of Salzburg for the cathedral treasury of that city.