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HOLY THURSDAY CIBORIUM, 1772
Anonymous, Madrid
Chiseled, embossed, turned, and engraved gold,
gilded silver, and diamonds, rubies, and emeralds
20 x 13 x 13 cm
Holy Metropolitan and Patriarchal Cathedral of Saint Mary of the See, Seville
An extraordinary gold and jewel-studded ciborium, conceived in the 18th century for the Holy Thursday reservation, stands out today as one of the most remarkable pieces of Spanish goldsmithing of its time. Its origin is directly related to the arrival in 1771 of a new gold urn created by the prestigious Italian goldsmith Luigi Valadier.
The need for this new piece arose when the old ciborium did not fit properly into the newly acquired urn. Faced with this situation, at the chapter meeting held on November 22 of that same year, the steward Pedro José del Campo announced that a devotee had collected alms to fund the creation of a new ciborium that would harmonize with the beauty of the urn. The proposal was immediately accepted.
Although the benefactor’s identity was initially concealed, it was later revealed that the donor was Canon Jerónimo Ignacio del Rosal, the same person who had financed the gold urn. The work was carried out in Madrid silversmith workshops between late November 1771 and April 9, 1772, the date on which it was officially presented and used for the first time on Holy Thursday of that year.
Despite the author being unknown, precise details about its cost and materials are preserved. The ciborium required 39.5 ounces of gold, valued at 12,540 reales, in addition to silver for its internal reinforcement. The labor cost amounted to thousands of additional reales, with the setting of precious stones being particularly expensive.
The piece is richly ornamented with a total of 2,510 gems: 1,983 diamonds, 332 rubies, and 195 emeralds. The diamonds alone, weighing over 72 carats, reached a value exceeding 22,000 reales, which demonstrates the magnitude and luxury of the work.
From an artistic point of view, the ciborium is an authentic jewel of the Rococo style. Its structure features a circular base decorated with delicate garlands and vegetal motifs formed by diamonds. Upon it rise ornamental cartouches and clusters of precious stones that recreate floral shapes, especially daisies, where rubies and emeralds provide color and contrast.
The elegantly designed stem leads to a wide hemispherical cup decorated with complex rocaille motifs and floral compositions. The lid, equally ornamented, culminates in a cross richly adorned with diamonds and colored stones, symbolizing the liturgical character of the piece.
This ciborium not only represents an exceptional example of 18th-century Madrid goldsmithing but also reflects the devotion, religious patronage, and artistic taste of an era in which art and faith merged into works of extraordinary richness and detail.
Source: This information can be consulted and downloaded in the article “The Feast of Corpus Christi: The Corpus Christi Procession in Seville” (p. 156), by Antonio Joaquín Santos Márquez, included in the publication Sedes Hispalensis, Fons Pietatis. Exhibition Catalog. Volume 2 .
https://icolombina.es/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Sedes-hispalensis.-Fons-pietatis-Volumen-2.pdf