Eagle of Suger
Unknown · Antique porphyry vase (Egypt or Rome); mount before 1147
A vase of dark red porphyry, polished to a mirror finish in Egypt or Rome in antiquity, has been turned into an eagle. Abbot Suger of Saint-Denis found the ancient vessel lying unused in a chest and had a mount of gilded silver made for it before eleven forty seven: a head with open beak, spread wings chased with feathers, a tail and claws. Walk around it to see how the smooth stone becomes the bird's body, and look for the two Latin verses nielloed at the base of the neck: this stone deserves to be set in gold and gems; it was marble, but now it is more precious than marble.
Suger described the vase himself at the end of his treatise on his administration, with two other vessels he gave the abbey, the Eleanor vase and the sardonyx ewer, both also in the Louvre. It stood on the altar, a perfect example of his belief that costly matter could lift the mind toward God. Number twenty eight in the treasury inventory of sixteen thirty four, it was seized at the Revolution and reached the museum in seventeen ninety five. The name SUGERIUS is inscribed beneath the base.
Did You Know? Suger admitted that the porphyry vase had sat forgotten in a chest for years before he had the idea of turning it into a bird.
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