OSTENSORIUM. - It is a sacred vessel (monstrantia, tabernaculum [movable or portable], custodia) used for the solemn exposition of the Most Blessed Sacrament or for carrying it in procession, in use only in the Latin Church.
It consists of a kind of receptacle (of square, round, or cylindrical shape) fitted with crystal, supported by a base similar to that of the chalice. The Host is placed in a semicircular holder (called a lunula or lunette because of its half-moon shape, sometimes called "Melchisedech" in eastern southern Germany; Gen. 14:18), fixed in the receptacle by means of a groove. The whole, of a height varying from 40 to 120 cm., is surmounted by a small cross (S. Congr. of Rites, decr. 2957). Neither the material (gold, silver, gilded copper; decr. 3162 ad 6) nor the blessing is prescribed; only the lunette, made by preference of gilded metal, is blessed (decr. 926 ad 5).
The o. was introduced in the 14th century following the use, which had become more common in the 15th century, of exposing the Most Blessed Sacrament for public adoration. At first the exposition was made with the pyx or with a box-shaped vessel fitted with crystal.
But out of the desire to see the Holy Host, and especially to carry it unveiled in solemn processions, specially made o. were constructed.
Pietro Siffrin
ART
In the Gothic era (14th-15th centuries), when its use spread more widely in parallel with reliquaries, of which it is an offshoot, the o. was conceived as a little temple, the house of the Lord, and, adhering in every respect to the models of architecture, it had spires,
pinnacles, buttresses, statuettes, changing according to
regional variants with a prevalence of crystals in Venice, with arches reflected in the Catalan manner
in Sicily and in
Sardinia, with harsher and more iron-like forms
in Lombardy (examples at Lovere,
church of S. Giorgio;
at Rossano, Cathedral; at Milan, Castello Sforzesco, etc.).
Following the example of the
grandiose o. that were made in Spain,
in southern Italy, especially in Sicily,
some o. reached
a height of about 2
m. and had to be
carried by hand during processions.
An exceptional example is the one that remains in the cathedral of
Enna, the work of Paolo Gili (16th century). During the Renaissance, in the various regions, even for the forms of the o. the
goldsmiths looked to the models of the new architecture;
thus the general form of the o. did not change but colonnettes, pediments and small domes were substituted for the buttresses and spires, seeking a greater harmony in the proportions and
decorating the base and the shaft with minute chiselling (Peja, church
of S. Antonio; Corlago, church of S. Pancrazio) etc.
With the 15th century another type of
o. began to be preferred, called "sun-shaped." Identifying the Eucharist with the radiant sun, the crystal receptacle that contained it was enclosed
by a circular frame from which radiated rays
of varying length, often alternating in gold and silver,
adorned with gems or with flowers with enamels (Palermo, S. Domenico) or
corals (Trapani, Museo nazionale). The imagination
of the artist goldsmiths gave this type other decorative details: the shaft was interrupted or formed by figures of
saints who support the sphere (Padua, church of S. Luca;
Castel di Sangro, Cathedral), or by pairs of angels (Bagnara, chiesa madre; Stilo, church of S. Giovanni Teresti; Vibo Valentia, church of S. Leo Luca,
etc.). Free from any compromise with architecture, the o.
in the 18th century assumed splendid forms in the perfect unity
of movement that passes from the base to the shaft in a vortex
of gold from which at the top rises the radiant sphere crowned
by adoring little angels, or covered by clusters of grapes
and ears of wheat as pleased the goldsmiths Filiberto, Michele
Kuerner, Viennese, Angelo Spinazzi, Mercurio, Sebastiano
Juvara and many others (for example, Chiuduno [Bergamo], church
of Maria Assunta; Bergamo, church of S. Alessandro della
Croce; Piacenza, church of S. Lazzaro; Palermo, Museo
nazionale; Messina, church of Monte Vergine, etc.).
The neoclassical taste at the beginning of the 19th century stiffened
the forms but did not substantially change the type, which remained
the preferred model for industrial reproductions. More
recently in the various exhibitions of sacred art it has been seen
with how much insistence, and often with how many perfected
experiments modern goldsmiths have elaborated the motif
of the o., quite often attaining the same nobility as the
ancient models. - See plate XXIX.
