The drawers are used mainly for the keeping of
the sacred vestments; the table for the spreading out of such of these
as are about to be or have just been used; and the cupboards above for
the holding of all the treasures of the church--chalices for the altar,
monstrances for the exposition of the sacrament, reliquaries of all
sorts of shapes and sizes for the preservation of the relics of saints,
ornamental candlesticks, and such like. In the richer and more important
churches these objects are generally of the precious metals, and
frequently richly adorned with gems, so that the amount of treasure
stored in these repositories is often very considerable. Sometimes such
a range of wood-work as has been described will be found filling one
side only of the sacristy, but in many cases it runs round the whole
apartment. And this piece of ecclesiastical furniture therefore
presented a great field for the taste and ingenuity of the old _maestri_
in wood-carving to exhibit their skill both in design and in execution.
At the Benedictine monastery of St. Peter, of the choir of which we have
been speaking, this fitting up of the sacristy had been done previously;
and it is accordingly much less rich in carving than the work in the
choir. But some of the doors of the cupboards are still more preciously
ornamented by some very finely-painted heads from the hand of the great
Perugino.
Such as it is, however, this sacristy at St.
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