Situlae served as containers for holy water. During the mass, an aspergillum would be dipped into the vessel, and the water would be sprinkled on the congregation.

This extremely rare Romanesque situla is thought to be among the earliest examples of its kind. Of tall, conical shape, and decorated with three bands and two male heads below the handle, the present situla compares closely to another in the church of St Stephanus in Beckum (Theuerkauff-Liederwald, op. cit., no. 4), which also shows similar cross-hatching. Theuerkauff-Liederwald has proposed a dating for both situlae in the first half of the 12th century, noting with regard to their masks that 'despite the worn condition, these heads still convey a sense of astonishing sculptural quality' (op. cit., p. 49). Characterised by swept-back hair, prominent ears and deeply cut eyelids, the heads find stylistic parallels in German metalwork from around 1130, such as the Crucifix of Minden Cathedral (Brandt, op. cit., fig. 11-13), and an Apostle on the Comburg Chandelier (Swarzenski, op. cit., fig. 248). The location of the Beckum situla in North Rhine-Westphalia, and the existence of a further comparable example in Cologne (Theuerkauff-Liederwald, op. cit., no. 6), indicate that the present vessel may have been made in a Lower Rhenish workshop.

Along with the Gothic candelabrum (lot 2), the situla formed part of the collects ion of Emanuel Vita Israel (1873-1940), one of the foremost Jewish art collects ors in Amsterdam. A pharmacist, Vita Israel was a prominent.mes mber of the Portuguese-Jewish Congregation. His art collects ion, which ranged from Old Master paintings to medieval and Renaissance metalwork, was housed in rooms above his pharmacy, and he was known to showcase it to curious visitors. Vita Israel’s passion for art translated into philanthropy; he was one of the founders and key supporters of the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam, which opened in 1932. On 15 May 1940, shortly after the German invasion of the Netherlands, Emanuel Vita Israel took his own life. Prior to his suicide, he had amended his will to stipulate the sale of his art collects ion within six months after his death. Vita Israel's entire family, apart from his daughter-in-law and two granddaughters, were deported and died in a concentration camp.

The situla and candelabrum were purchased at the auction of Vita Israel’s estate by the Dutch collects or J.W. Frederiks (1889-1962), whose descendants donated it to the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen. In 2020 the Restitutions Committee of the Netherlands found that Vita Israel’s suicide and the sale of his collects ion were a direct result of circumstances related to the Nazi regime. The two pieces were consequently restituted by Rotterdam City Council to the heirs of Emanuel Vita Israel.

RELATED LITERATURE

H. Swarzenski, Monuments of Romanesque Art: The Art of Church Treasures in North-Western Europe, Chicago, 1954; M. Brandt (ed.), Bild & Bestie. Hildesheimer Bronzen der Stauferzeit, exh. cat. Dom-Museum, Hildesheim, 2008