Dear Meg,
It was, I believe, during the late 10th and early 11th centuries that
figural and body-part reliquaries began to emerge as a type: the
Golden Virgin of Essen is one example. Another is the reliquary of
St Foy at Conques, which is famous for the initial censure of Bernard
of Angers, who came around to actually seeing its positive side,
eventually. Arm reliquaries and head reliquaries, etc, also emerged
in the 11th century. There was, I believe, an entire recent issue of
the journal Gesta dedicated to body part reliquaries. As for the
visibility of the relics themselves, there is evidence from a wide
span of time that devotees actually kissed them. From the 5th or 6th
century, I believe, there is an account of the display of the True
Cross relic in Jerusalem, during which the relic itself was held down
by two deacons while another cleric looked closely on, in order to
make sure nobody bit off a chunk. This was an on-going problem,
however, and apparently St Hugh of Lincoln did just that in the early
13th century. Felix Fabri in the late 15th century still talks of
"kissing bones". As far as images of martyrs with attributes of
their martyrdoms is concerned, this is a question that I have just
realized needs to be looked at more closely. It is somewhat
different from narrative depictions of actual martyrdoms, which is a
much older practice. Martyrs actually carrying attributes
representing metonymically their martyrdoms are, so far as
I am aware, a later medieval phenomenon, perhaps only dating from the
12th or early 13th centuries. I'd be fascinated to know more.
Cheers,
Jim Bugslag
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