Portable monstrance of templete; Possibly Catalonia, XVI century.

Portable monstrance of templete; Possibly Catalonia, XVI century.
Gilded silver and glass.
It has slight losses of gilding and slight restorations.
With punch.
Measurements: 58 x 21 x 21 cm.
Weight: 3000 g.
Composed of a base, a shaft or stem and a two-story architectural upper structure with some figures of auction. The base presents a flat base on which tubular forms with discs are placed, followed by a mixtilinear form with an openwork front with circular details and an upper part with vegetal elements in relief (flowers, scrolls, palms, etc.) and a heraldic shield. The axis or stem begins with an architectural form with flying buttresses and tubular forms with disks (similar to those of the base) and continues with another body of niches with sculptures of saints and saints, which present columns of double baluster facing and arches with venerated elements, topped on the outside by heads of winged angels with leaves in their hair; this zone ends with an architectural element that recalls the lower part.
The two-story upper zone has a hexagonal base and architectural, figurative and vegetal decorative elements of marked classicist influence, together with others of a more classical Gothic type, and is topped by a Déesis with a rocky floor (the Virgin and St. John flanking a crucified Christ). Just below the gallery of tri-lobed arches that finish it below, two garlands of leaves and fruits hang; and two heraldic coats of arms are engraved. Next, the virile for the Sacred Form is presented, sheltered in a structure with grotesques functioning as columns and angels playing musical instruments. Above this, another structure presents seated children holding the emblems of the Passion and an enclosed space with balustraded balconies with crosses in the center, inside which appears a nimbed figure blessing and holding an orb topped with a cross (in reality, this figure tops the virile, but is visible through this hole); there are also niches with figures. Between one floor and the other, there are a series of chains attached to small rods that ensure that the monstrance does not open.
One of these two engraved heraldic shields already mentioned shows a Tau, also known as the Cross of Santa Tecla or San Antonio, common in Tarragona and in orders such as the Franciscans, for example. The other heraldic shield, which is very similar to the one on the base (here the border is different, there are more plants...), is cut, with a bull or ox passing to the left in the upper part and three plant stems (perhaps reeds) coming out of the ground (under which there is another line that could allude to a water course) in the lower zone.
The templete monstrances are a relatively frequent typology in the Burgos and Valladolid schools (in fact, it seems to be common in Castile and Leon, except for some areas such as Palencia), although they appear in all the Spanish school together with the tower ones and the type known as "de sol" (of the sun). Compare, for example, the monstrance of the church of Santa Eulalia de Paredes de Nava, or that of the parish of San Pedro de Aibar (dated around 1476-1488, made in Burgos, perhaps by Juan de Santa Cruz); that of the parish church of San Juan Bautista in Horta de Sant Joan (workshop of Tortosa, XVI century, documentation from around 1520; note the high base, with a front with circles); the monstrance of Samaniego (Diocesan Museum of Sacred Art of Euskadi, made by Sancho de Salcedo -doc. Santo Domingo de la Calzada, 1495-1511-); monstrance of Arisgotas (Museo Parroquial de la Villa de Orgaz, dated before 1547 and made by Francisco Martínez de San Román from Toledo), etc.