Around the cardinal Don Gil Álvarez de Albornoz and the Sienese goldsmith Andrea Petrucci: the reliquary of St. Lucy’s hand and the chalice of St. Segundo

Abstract

This article deals with the complex and hitherto unpublished history of the arrival in Spain of two masterpieces of Sienese craftsmanship in silver and translucent enamel from the fourteenth century: the reliquary of the hand of St. Lucy in Toledo Cathedral and the San Segundo chalice in Ávila Cathedral. The import of these important liturgical and devotional pieces, both signed by the Sienese goldsmith Andrea Petrucci, is inextricably linked with the Italian sojourn of cardinal don Gil de Albornoz, archbishop of Toledo and later cardinal of San Clemente and Sabina, and papal legate. The patronage exercised by the Castilian cardinal and his circle in Italy accounts for the commission and acquisition of these pieces, whose complex itineraries would eventually conclude in Toledo and Ávila.