Ask the Scholar

This pax - an object held up to the congregation during the Catholic Mass for the "kiss of peace" pax is the Latin word for peace - is set with an enameled plaque divided into two subjects: below, Christ, as the Man of Sorrows, standing resurrected in the tomb between the Virgin and St. John, and in front of the instruments of the Passion: the cross, the lance and the whip. In the lunette above appears God the Father, wearing the cross-nimbus, holding the globe, blessing and surrounded by cherubs, a composition typical of the paxes of Venice and Padua.The frame is designed to suggest an altarpiece and is original. It consists of pilasters decorated with vases of flowers, crowned by capitals. The lunette, framed in a deep molding, is set, as is the lintel below, with cabochons of glass-paste, and decorated on its outer edge with a candelabrum at the summit and dolphins flanking acanthus leaves on the sides.