Cup with cover | |
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Artist | Hans van Amsterdam |
Year | 1533 - 1534 |
Medium | Silver gilt, coconut shell |
Dimensions | 10 7/8 × 3 7/8 in. (27.6 × 9.8 cm) |
Weight | 640 lb, 290 kg |
Location | Minneapolis Institute of Art, New York |
Owner | The Metropolitan Museum of Art |
Website | https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/193595 |
The Cup with Cover is an object known for the power of the Cup, which is often referred to as the "exotic coconut." According to folklore, these coconuts possess a unique and strong power, as anything placed into these cups becomes neutralized. This mysterious ability has contributed to the Cup with Cover becoming a subject of fascination and intrigue in various cultural narratives.
The writing and symbols seen on the cup are themes from the Old Testament that give the cup power. The three themes are engraved on the cup as is:
The popularity of these cups quickly spread, leading to other artists, such as Albrecht Altdorfer, Hans Brosamer, and Hieronymus Hopfer, creating their designs in a similar style..[ citation needed ]
Around coconut:
On edge of cover: inscription in Greek Letters: Often in floods of wine a man is wrecked
Below lip: POCVLA SVME / FLVET MELIVS POST POCVLA SERMO (quaff your cups; after cups speech flows more readily)
On rim of foot: MMODIC[us] LAEDIT CEV DIRA CICVTA LVAEVS NON FACIT AD LONGAM CRAPVLA MVLTA DIEM
Translation: wine immoderately drunk is as harmful as the deadly hemlock; frequent surfeit does not for a long life
Struck On foot:
The Coconut Cup with Old Testament Scenes is a notable historical artifact that exemplifies the craftsmanship of the late 16th century. Created by Cornelis de Bye in 1598, this piece features scenes from the Old Testament intricately carved onto a coconut sourced from Africa and the East Indies. The coconut is elegantly mounted on a shiny silver base, adding to its overall allure.
One distinguishing feature of this cup is the inscription "Drunkenness is the root of all evil," attributed to Hans Van Amsterdam. The narrative depicted on the cup includes stories such as Lot and his daughters, Samson and the Lion, and David and Bathsheba. These intricate carvings offer a glimpse into the artistry and storytelling of the time.
The Coconut Cup with Old Testament Scenes stands as a testament to the skill and creativity of its maker and serves as a valuable historical and artistic artifact from the late 16th century. [1]
The Medieval English Coconut Story, written by Kathleen Kennedy, is a historical account that details the intriguing history of the Coconut Cup in medieval England. The story challenges the belief that coconuts simply appeared in England, sparking curiosity and debate among historians.
According to the narrative, there was an initial notion that the coconuts might have been brought to England by birds, although this theory was later dismissed due to the impracticality of birds carrying such heavy fruit. Subsequently, it was revealed that the people of England were engaged in trade with the people of India, acquiring these remarkable coconut cups through commerce.
The narrative suggests that these coconut cups were a prevalent commodity in England, with almost every household possessing a customized cup tailored to their specific needs. The cups were not only practical but also held significant historical value, representing a fascinating aspect of the medieval period. [2] [3]
Abraham is the common Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father of the special relationship between the Jews and God; in Christianity, he is the spiritual progenitor of all believers, whether Jewish or non-Jewish; and in Islam, he is a link in the chain of Islamic prophets that begins with Adam and culminates in Muhammad. As the namesake of the Abrahamic religions, Abraham is also revered in other Abrahamic religions, such as Druze Faith and Baháʼí Faith.
Noah appears as the last of the Antediluvian patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible, the Quran and Baha'i writings. Noah is referenced in various other books of the Bible, including the New Testament, and in associated deuterocanonical books.
Geoffrey of Monmouth was a Catholic cleric from Monmouth, Wales, and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography and the popularity of tales of King Arthur. He is best known for his chronicle The History of the Kings of Britain which was widely popular in its day, being translated into other languages from its original Latin. It was given historical credence well into the 16th century, but is now considered historically unreliable.
Samson was the last of the judges of the ancient Israelites mentioned in the Book of Judges and one of the last leaders who "judged" Israel before the institution of the monarchy. He is sometimes considered as an Israelite version of the popular Near Eastern folk hero also embodied by the Sumerian Gilgamesh and Enkidu, as well as the Greek Heracles. Samson was given superhuman powers by God in the form of extreme strength.
Judah was, according to the Book of Genesis, the fourth of the six sons of Jacob and Leah and the founder of the Tribe of Judah of the Israelites. By extension, he is indirectly the eponym of the Kingdom of Judah, the land of Judea, and the word Jew.
Delilah is a woman mentioned in the sixteenth chapter of the Book of Judges in the Hebrew Bible. She is loved by Samson, a Nazirite who possesses great strength and serves as the final Judge of Israel. Delilah is bribed by the lords of the Philistines to discover the source of his strength. After three failed attempts at doing so, she finally goads Samson into telling her that his vigor is derived from his hair. As he sleeps, Delilah cuts Samson's hair, thereby enabling her to turn him over to the Philistines.
Stories from the Bible have frequently been used in films. There are various reasons for motion picture producers to turn to the Bible as source material. The stories, in the public domain, are already familiar to potential audiences. They contain sweeping, but relatively straightforward, narratives of good versus evil, and feature crowd-pleasing battles, sword fights, natural disasters, and miracles.
Sex is considered repeatedly in the Hebrew Bible. Some references provide unambiguous ethical regulations, such as the laws given in Leviticus or Deuteronomy. Others are more ambivalent, most famously the potentially homosexual actions of Ham with his father, Noah. Its depictions of homosexuality, rape, prostitution and incest have spurred considerable academic and theological attention.
Typology in Christian theology and biblical exegesis is a doctrine or theory concerning the relationship of the Old Testament to the New Testament. Events, persons or statements in the Old Testament are seen as types prefiguring or superseded by antitypes, events or aspects of Christ or his revelation described in the New Testament. For example, Jonah may be seen as the type of Christ in that he emerged from the fish's belly and thus appeared to rise from death.
The term Poor Man's Bible has come into use in modern times to describe works of art within churches and cathedrals which either individually or collectively have been created to illustrate the teachings of the Bible for a largely illiterate population. These artworks may take the form of carvings, paintings, mosaics or stained-glass windows. In some churches a single artwork, such as a stained-glass window, has the role of Poor Man's Bible, while in others, the entire church is decorated with a complex biblical narrative that unites in a single scheme.
Samson and Delilah is a painting long attributed to the Flemish Baroque artist Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) in the National Gallery, London. It dates from about 1609 to 1610.
Jewish mythology is the body of myths associated with Judaism. Elements of Jewish mythology have had a profound influence on Christian mythology and on Islamic mythology, as well as on Abrahamic culture in general. Christian mythology directly inherited many of the narratives from the Jewish people, sharing in common the narratives from the Old Testament. Islamic mythology also shares many of the same stories; for instance, a creation-account spaced out over six periods, the legend of Abraham, the stories of Moses and the Israelites, and many more.
The Old English Hexateuch, or Aelfric Paraphrase, is the collaborative project of the late Anglo-Saxon period that translated the six books of the Hexateuch into Old English, presumably under the editorship of Abbot Ælfric of Eynsham. It is the first English vernacular translation of the first six books of the Old Testament, i.e. the five books of the Torah and Joshua. It was probably made for use by lay people.
The Queen Mary Psalter is a fourteenth-century English psalter named after Mary I of England, who gained possession of it in 1553. The psalter is noted for its beauty and the lavishness of its illustration, and has been called "one of the most extensively illustrated psalters ever produced in Western Europe" and "one of the choicest treasures of the magnificent collection of illuminated MSS. in the British Museum".
The Isabella Psalter, also called the Psalter of Queen Isabella or the Psalter of Isabella of England, is a 14th-century volume containing the Book of Psalms, named for Isabella of France, who is herself depicted in it; it was likely a gift upon her betrothal or marriage. The illuminated manuscript is also notable for its bestiary.
The Assyrian lion weights are a group of bronze statues of lions, discovered in archaeological excavations in or adjacent to ancient Assyria.
The Hebrew Bible contains a number of references to rape and other forms of sexual violence, both in the Law of Moses, its historical narratives and its prophetic poetry.
The Salerno Ivories are a collection of Biblical ivory plaques from around the 11th or 12th century that contain elements of Early Christian, Byzantine, and Islamic art as well as influences from Western Romanesque and Anglo-Saxon art. Disputed in number, it is said there are between 38 and 70 plaques that comprise the collection. It is the largest unified set of ivory carvings preserved from the pre-Gothic Middle Ages, and depicts narrative scenes from both the Old and New Testaments. Some researchers believe the Ivories hold political significance and serve as commentary on the Investiture Controversy through their iconographies. The majority of the plaques are housed in the Diocesan Museum of the Cathedral of Salerno, which is where the group's main namesake comes from. It is supposed the ivories originated in either Salerno and Amalfi, which both contain identified ivory workshops, however neither has been definitively linked to the plaques so the city of origin remains unknown. Smaller groups of the plaques and fragments of panels are currently housed in different museum collections in Europe and America, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Louvre in Paris, the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest, the Hamburg Museum of Art and Trade, and the Sculpture Collection in the Berlin State Museums.
The Adoration of the Magi altarpiece is a small Gothic boxwood miniature, made in the Netherlands c. 1500–1530, attributed to the workshop of Adam Dircksz. Such rarefied and highly ornate objects were intended for private devotion, and took, by modern art historian estimates, decades to complete, periods equivalent to the entire career of a medieval master carver. Just around 150 of these sculptures from the late 15th and early 16th centuries remain today, and the elite echelons of collectors in the 19th century placed a high value on them despite the fact that it is unknown how many of them were manufactured.