Late Gothic Bronze Holy-Water Bucket (Situla)

A small Late Gothic copper-alloy holy-water bucket, or situla, of characteristic Netherlandish or Lower Rhenish form. The vessel is cast with a broad circular mouth above a strongly profiled body, narrowing towards the centre before expanding into a substantial spreading foot. Successive horizontal ribs and mouldings articulate the exterior, giving the otherwise undecorated vessel a pronounced architectural character.

The bucket retains its separately cast hinged handle, attached to opposed pierced lugs at the rim. Of particular note is the unusual trilobed or trefoil configuration of the handle, the upper section forming a broad rounded arch whose inward-pointing terminals meet the rising lateral arms. Closely related trilobed handles occur on bronze holy-water buckets attributed to Flanders and the Rhine region during the later fifteenth century.