Private devotional reliquary
Silver and blackened wood
Unmarked
Augsburg, circa 1740
D : 20,2 x 12 cm
Literature:
James Clifton, « Verbum Domini manet in eternum » : Devotional Cabinets and Kunst-und Wunderkammern around 1600, in : The Primacy of hte Image in Northern European Art, 1400-1700, Leyden, Boston, 2017, pp. 474-486.
Description
The reliquary in the form of a wardrobe houses a relic of the true Cross and another of the Virgin's veil. At the bottom, a drawer is decorated with two small removable candlesticks. On the reverse, a compartment with a lock contains documents attesting the authenticity of the relics.
For similar devotional cabinets dating around 1600 :
Houston, Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, inv. n° BF.2008.1
Phoenix, Phoenix Art Museum, inv. n° 1998.1.A
Munich, Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, inv. n° 77/329
