It is the oldest known ark to have been used to preserve the ashes of St. John the Baptist. The shape is that of a rectangular building with a sloped “roof” covering  which extends beyond the “walls”, the work is decorated with plant motifs. The panels which compose it tell the life of the Christ’s precursor.

On the front face are the scenes of the artyrdom: Herodias instigates Salome, Herod attends the dance of Salome, the servant carries the head of the Baptist, the executioner is about to perform the Beheading. The front side and the two short sides are decorated with precious  stones, rectangular and oval shaped, cut cabochon. According to a later tradition - the seventeenth-century ark was reported to be a devotional offering from the Emperor Federico Barbarossa.

According to tradition, the dish was used to bear the Baptist's severed head after his martyrdom: it is an exceptional piece for its artistic quality, for its devotional importance, and for its intrinsic value. The dish is the product of two different epochs: the original container is made of chalcedony, and is of Roman production from the first century AD., probably commissioned by an emperor.

The metal decoration that frames and characterizes its centre with the representation of the head of the Baptist is a French work from the early fifteenth century: in gold with rubies and enamel. The client who commissioned this work was likely to have been King Charles VI himself or the Duke of Burgundy or that of Berry, its first recorded owner was Cardinal Jean Balue, a leading figure of mid-15th century France, advisor and friend of the King of France, and much more, a leading exponent of the Valois dynasty. It was donated by the cardinal to Pope Innocent VIII, who himself a Genoese, assigned it to the Protection of the Chapel of St. John the Baptist in his native city.

The ark was created in order to carry the ashes of St. John the Baptist, patron saint of Genoa, on the occasion of his feast (June 24), a ritual that is still maintained today. The ashes, preserved in the cathedral inside the altar of the chapel dedicated to the Saint, were recovered by the Genoese from the city of Mira in 1098, at the time of the First Crusade. The ark was commissioned by the Priors of the Chapel and produced between 1438 and 1445. The overall design is attributable to the Ligurian Teramo Danieli, who, however was subsequently replaced by another Ligurian artist  Simone Caldera (previously active in Siena) due to his artistic culture which was of an international level.
The shape of the ark is that of a miniature cathedral topped with heavily decorated spires and pinnacles. At the four corners two evangelists: St. John and St. Mattew and the city’s two patron saints: St. George and St. Lawrence. In the central part the story of the John the Baptist is told in its ten most significant episodes, from the announcement of his birth to his burial following his martyrdom.

The cabinet, or box, in gilded silver, is decorated with pearls and enamel; the feet, in the form of winged monsters, are in rock crystal; the internal top in semi-precious stone. Made within the Florentine Grand Ducal manufactories it was not originally intended for religious use - it is more likely that it was to be used as a jewellery box - the cabinet in the mid-17th century belonged to the Genoese Giovanni Pinceti. It was bought from his heirs in 1665, for the sum of almost fourteen thousand lire by the Protector of Chapel of St. John the Baptist who selected it to be used for the exhibition of the Baptist's ashes.

The reliquary, characterized along the shaft by a thick decoration called "repoussè", was probably produced at the time of the wedding of the emperor Andronicus III of Byzantium Palaeologus to Giovanna di Savoia (who then adopted the name of Anna). Shortly thereafter it was placed in the church of the Genoese colony who, since 1273, had settled in the Constantinopolitan suburb of Pera.

In 1461, after the Turkish conquest of the city, the Genoese transported the reliquary to their homeland where it was placed in the Franciscan monastery of Nostra Signora del Monte, it remained there until 1810, when following the suppression of the monastery, it came into the possession of the Cathedral.

The front face consists of gold leaf, decorated with precious stones, in the centre of which are preserved fragments of wood that tradition attributes to being parts of the Cross on which Christ was crucified; on the back there are half-length embossed images - below St. John the Evangelist, in the centre the Virgin, and to the sides the archangels Gabriel and Michael, above Christ Pantocrator - and an inscription in Greek that states that this cross was commissioned in the ninth century by Barda, brother of the empress mother of the East Theodolinda, who donated it to the basilica of San Giovanni Evangelista in Ephesus, and that Isaac, bishop of Ephesus between 1260 and 1283, had it reworked in the condition in which it is received, transforming it into a stauroteca, that is to say a reliquary of the True Cross.
It was plundered by the Turks in 1308, but the following year came into the hands of the Genoese family Zaccaria, in the fourteenth century it was donated to the Cathedral of Genoa by the last of member of the family and later it came to be used in the doge's blessing ceremony on election day. It is currently exhibited in the Cathedral on Good Friday.

Loans

Genoa, Palazzo Ducale
from 04/12/1999 to 28/05/2000
for the exhibition “El Siglo de los Genoveses e una lunga storia di Arte e Splendori nel Palazzo dei Dogi”

The statue was ordered between 1747 and 1748 by seven Genoese gentlemen, recently admitted to be part of the patriciate of the Republic, as a gift to the then presiding doge, Giovan Francesco Brignole-Sale, whose actions had played a considerable role in the expulsion of the Austrian troops who had occupied Genoa in 1746. At the end of his mandate Brignole donated it to the cathedral with the intention that each year it would be carried in procession on December 8th, a tradition that was carried on until the time of the Revolution.

The ark was built to carry a consecrated host in procession through the city streets at the feast of Corpus Domini. The commission was granted by the City Fathers in 1553, but the work, which involved Genoese, Flemish, German and Lombard silversmiths, and which also involved changes in the design, was only completed in 1612.

At the base are heads of angels, in the central part in relief Stories of the Passion, from the Last Supper to Christ’s Burial, alternating with the figures of the Apostles. On the cover, seated on thrones, the Prophets, and angels with candlesticks and symbols of the Passion. On the plinth stand the four Sibyls, two on each side, in a specular position, and crowning the whole is a monstrance in the form of a ciborium.

The dish, for centuries thought to be emerald, was actually made by pouring molten green glass into a hexagonal mould. Traditionally it was considered the Holy Grail, or the dish used by Christ to consume the paschal lamb with the disciples during the Last Supper. It was produced in ancient Syria, probably around the first century AD. (but this dating is disputed), and according to most sources it was brought to Genoa by Guglielmo Embriaco following the conquest of Caesarea in 1101, or in the period of the First Crusade. In the past, as a precious relic, it was shown in the Cathedral only on the first day of Lent. At the beginning of 19th century Napoleon had it brought to Paris, where it was examined and its true nature discovered, it was probably during its return trip, between Turin and Genoa, that it was broken. The metal structure that now holds it together dates to the 1950s.

Loans

Genoa, Musum of St. Augustine
from 19/03/2016 to 26/06/2016
for the exhibition “Genova nel Medioevo. Una capitale del Mediterraneo al tempo degli Embriaci”