This beautiful object in the Munich Residenz is often called "a ciborium or portable altar," but this is somewhat misleading! The entire structure, which resembles a kind of tent or canopy, is a ciborium. Ciboriums typically covered the main altar in a medieval church. 1/4 https://twitter.com/ArthurWestwell/status/1177226571867987969">https://twitter.com/ArthurWes...

Ciboriums were sometimes built into the church architecture itself (especially later on), but the one in the Munich Residenz is free-standing. Like its fellows, it covers an altar; but this is where the name confusion happens. The Residenz ciborium contains a portable altar! 2/4

The green porphyry slab, encased in wood and silver with enamel panels, is actually removable. It can be taken out of the ciborium setting entirely! I& #39;ve found textual sources that describe this practice, as it was common to process an altar around inside a church. 3/4

I& #39;m looking forward to sharing more on the practice of removal and addition in regards to medieval devotional objects. The Munich Residenz ciborium is just one surviving example of a much wider phenomenon. Thanks for following! (all photos in this thread by @ArthurWestwell) 4/4

*please do not try to remove the portable altar from the ciborium in the Residenz

**but if you do please send me photos of the separated altar, thx