"Maiestas Domini". Large gilded, embossed and chased copper appliqué figure. Romanesque. 12th – 13th century.

"Maiestas Domini". Large gilded, embossed and chased copper appliqué figure. Romanesque. 12th – 13th century.
Surrounded by seven cabochons in precious stones, the relief depicts Christ in Majesty, one of the figures most representative of Romanesque art, in which Christ is throned within a vesica piscis, in a vertical position, giving blessing with the right hand and holding a book in the left hand. It is the perfect image to describe the divinity of Christ.
This figure is very likely to have been affixed to a reliquary chest, as on occasions the central part would have a large image of Christ in Majesty, like, for example, the front of the 6th century Arca Santa (Holy Ark) at Oviedo Cathedral, or the châsse de Saint-Viance at the Parish church in Saint Viance, in France. There are similar appliqué figures on the front of the Romanesque altar of Milan Cathedral.
Another possibility is that that it could have been part of a portable triptych, like the plaques in the Triptych of Florennes Abbey, from the d'Entre-Sambre-et-Meuse workshop, circa 1210-1230, or that it would have been on the central part of the cover of a large book. Whatever the case, it is a fact that the great quality of the chasing, along with the dimensions and the thickness of the figure, almost completely free-standing from the plaque, not simply in bass relief, gives us the feeling that it must have come from an important piece made of precious metals.
Reference bibliography: "Une Renaissance, L'art entre Flandre et
Champagne, 1150-1250". Catalogue of the exhibition which took place at the Musée
de Cluny. Paris 2013.
Provenance: Martí Mas Tubau collection. Acquired in Sotheby's on 13/12/1984, lot nº 24.
18 x 10,5 cm.