Reliquaries and Cultures
Moving forward, we can now discuss the differences in mediums and decorations between reliquaries from around the globe. The arm reliquary and reliquary shrine are from the South of the Netherlands and France. These European reliquaries are highly adorned with gold, silver, enamel, gems and paint (“Arm Reliquary” and “Reliquary Shrine”), and are exceptionally shiny. This portrays the wealth behind their creators – be it a church or individual – because although silver was produced in Europe (Brännvall & Renberg 4393), the other materials used most likely had to be imported. The 15th century Thai reliquary is made of bronze and ivory (The British Museum). Thus, it seems as though some countries had better access to certain materials or had the wealth to buy such goods, while others did not and only could work with local goods. This is evident because the Thai reliquary uses a less luxurious metal, and its other medium is ivory – which is only available in Africa or Asia because elephants reside in these continents. This can suggest that the creator of the Thai reliquary did not have the same amount of wealth the European countries had – to import other raw materials to adorn their reliquaries with – and thus had to work with local and inexpensive materials. However, it could also be the case that the creator of said reliquary simply did not wish to have the reliquary decorated lavishly for whatever reasons because after all, the cultures in comparison here are very different from one another.
These images tell us that reliquaries can be found in many different cultures, and how they are decorated rely heavily on geographic location and wealth. But, despite the differences in aesthetic appearance, it seems that all cultures make use of this object in the same way. Even if one were to search “reliquary” in the British Museum website, one would find reliquaries from all over the world that look extremely different but are all created for the same or similar purpose – to contain or display an important relic.