Antioch chalice

History

The Antioch chalice, uncovered in 1910 in the ancient city of Antioch on the Orontes (now in modern Turkey, close to the Syrian border), was part of a cache that also contained a large cross and three book covers. It likely belonged to a church in Antioch, one of the five key early Christian centers. At its discovery, the plain inner cup was mistaken for the Holy Chalice, with the ornate gilded outer shell believed to have been added within a century of Christ’s death to venerate it. The chalice was exhibited as the Holy Grail at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair and later sold to The Cloisters in New York in 1950.

Description

This silver cup, known as the Antioch chalice, sits inside a decorative, footed outer shell made of gilded silver with openwork. The whole object stands 19.6 centimeters tall, with a width of 18 centimeters and a depth of 15.2 centimeters; its base measures 7.4 centimeters across. The cup itself was originally egg-shaped but has been crushed and distorted. When first found, a thick layer of oxidation covered it, which restorers later removed.

However, corrosion inside the cup has made the inner vessel extremely fragile and brittle. Lotus petals decorate the base, and a palm wreath wraps around the bulb of the short stem just above. Around the rim of the outer shell runs a line of rosettes with a single star. An open lotus flower appears at the bottom of the shell, while the upper part features a grapevine heavy with fruit, twisted into twelve loops.

Each loop contains a figure. Two of these figures represent Christ: one holds a scroll, and the other sits beside a lamb, with an eagle perched above them on a basket of fruit, its wings spread. The remaining ten figures were once believed to be apostles, but scholars have since suggested they might be classical philosophers who predicted Christ’s arrival. Small animals and insects also appear on the outer shell, including snails, doves, a butterfly, a grasshopper, and a rabbit.