c. 1760

Tabernacle from an Altarpiece

A tabernacle stores the consecrated wine and host that are part of the Catholic Mass. The hinged door on this example---inscribed with the Latin FONS VITAE (Fountain of Life)---provides access to this storage space. This tabernacle likely formed the central element of an elaborate gilded retable, a decorative structure that covered the wall of a chapel behind an altar. Such grand decorative schemes had a rich tradition in Portugal: in the eighteenth century designers combined motifs from Italian Baroque architecture and French and German Rococo ornament to create an exuberant and wholly original style, exemplified in the carving seen here.