ABSTRACT
On a cross-shaped reliquary of the True Cross in gilded coppedecorated with a Christological cycle in cloisonne enamels, Mary holds the Child above an altar in front of an elderly man. This scene illustrates the Presentation of the new-born Christ Child in the Temple; it was his first public appearance. The fact that in the Gospel episode of the Presentation in the Temple Christ Child Child is the Lamb of God is implicit: he is the real offering Virgin Mary and Joseph brought to the Temple and symbolically placed on the altar of God. The feast of Presentation of the Christ Child in the Temple was celebrated in the West at least since the seventh century, when it was known as the feast of Saint Simeon. In the early centuries of Christianity believers were already wearing amulets with an intended apotropaic function, usually crosses containing relics, or phylacteries containing miniature-sized versions of the Gospels.
