Throne of Eucharistic Exposition
Antonio de Laurentiis
Throne of Eucharistic Exposition, 1754
Gold, gilt copper, glass, precious and semi-precious stones
68 11/16 × 32 5/16 × 15 3/8 in. (174.5 × 82 × 39 cm)
Terra Sancta Museum, Jerusalem
© The Frick Collection
Following the arrival of the Neapolitan gold monstrance in 1747, the Kingdom of Naples sent this Throne of Eucharistic Exposition to Jerusalem in October 1755. Extraordinary for its size and the value of its materials, this is the most impressive object preserved today in the Latin Treasure and one of the most important survivals of eighteenth-century European goldsmith work. The throne bears the arms of King Charles and of his wife, Queen Maria Amalia of Saxony. On the base at left, it is signed by the Neapolitan goldsmith Antonio de Laurentiis, whose name is associated primarily with objects in gold-inlaid tortoiseshell and mounted snuffboxes.