Eucharistic tabernacle

Reasonably well crafted piece from the first half of the sixteenth century, perhaps produced by a Neapolitan workshop

The work, which is today preserved in the sacristy of the church of San Francesco in Venafro, can be attributed to a Neapolitan workshop from the first half of the sixteenth century. The original position of the Eucharistic tabernacle is unknown and it can be assumed that it was placed in its current position recently. The central façade is framed by two pilasters decorated with grotesque motifs that support an architrave, and is finished at the top by a projecting entablature. The small door of the Blessed Sacrament is flanked by four adoring angels, two on each side, inserted within two arches. Above them there is a lunette with God the Father blessing, carved in bas-relief, holding the dove of the Holy Spirit in his left hand. At the base of the aedicule, almost as if to act as a predella, there is the plinth with an inscription in beautiful Roman capitals “HIC EST PANIS VIVS [sic] QVI / DE CELO DESCENDIT” (“This is the living bread that descends from heaven”).