Osculatory with the architectural structure of a renaissance portico. Two pilasters sit on a base and support an entablature topped by a fancied pediment finished off with a figure.
The base or frame is decorated with vegetal motifs in relief and three hyacinth cabochons.
In the centre, beneath the arches, the episode of the Kings, flanked by pilasters with vegetal decoration, of plateresque origin, which sustain the subsiding arches. The scene of the Adoration has figures in perspective, and three standards are seen in the background. In the upper part, on the central pilaster, there is the head of a child, probably a Sun Child, in a framed medallion.
The Corinthian pilasters of the architectural structure have stylised floral decorations on the three sides. The space of the composition is divided into small segments. The decoration is the same as that of the base.
The entablature, a vegetal composition similar to that of the pilasters, has two hyacinths like those of the base at each end, but smaller.
The upper part has a fancied pediment formed by two angels, in which a part of the body is formed by vegetation, supported by the crowned national shield, which occupies the axis of the composition. The angels hold a fantasy creature, supposedly a dolphin, which has a vegetal body and tail. The heads of the animals rest on the ends of the entablature. The pediment is finished off with a figure that is damaged and headless.
On the reverse there is a cast and chiselled handle with a grotesque mask as the lower finishing trim.
The osculatory was a gift from king D. Manuel to the Funchal Cathedral: a gilded osculatory, wrought with bastions that had five large hyacinths and weighed three marks and one ounce.1
The inventory of 30 August 1644 lists a gilded osculatory with five stones, missing a head that broke off and that is there.2
This piece was included in the exhibitions: Janelas Verdes in 1949; Ourivesaria Sacra no Convento de Santa Clara, 1951; Valladolid, 1994; Cristo Fonte de Esperança Porto, 2000.
1 Torre do Tombo, Manuscritos da Sé maço 7, em PITA FERREIRA, A Sé do Funchal, p. 177.
2 Livro dos inventários da Sé, p. 85, em PITA FERREIRA, A Sé do Funchal, p. 178.
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