Interior of a Pendant with the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Adoration of the Magi and the Crucifixion

Entry

This small woodcarving originally formed the interior of a lantern-shaped pendant. Each of its four rectangular sides holds a scene taken from the life of Christ, meticulously carved in pierced relief: the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Adoration of the Magi, and the Crucifixion. A coherent group of this type of devotional micro-carving survives to the present day, some still complete with the accompanying pendant. When intact, these jewellery pieces consist of a hollowed-out rock crystal casing, encrusted in a silver(-gilt) mounting frequently enamelled and usually adorned at the bottom with a hanging pearl. Highly similar to the present piece is a pendant with an interior fruitwood carving preserved in the Metropolitan Museum (fig. a).² Both works contain four carved, pierced reliefs, each framed by pillars supporting an arch. Other examples are found in collections such as the British Museum,³ the Walters Art Gallery,⁴ the Louvre and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.⁵ In Hans Maler’s portrait of the German merchant Mathäus Schwartz of about 1526-29, one is able to observe the way in which these jewellery pieces, so-called ‘lanterns’, were worn.⁶ Micro-carvings of a similar nature are also encountered in other kinds of devotional objects, including a silver-gilt miniature triptych in the Victoria and Albert Museum.⁷

The origin of these objects has long been uncertain. The style of the goldsmith’s work was initially thought to indicate a German, Italian or Spanish origin,⁸ while the minutely carved fruitwood interiors pointed more to a Netherlandish background.⁹ In the late Middle Ages, devotional micro-carving in boxwood was popular in the Netherlands, as manifest, for example, in prayer nuts (cf. BK-2010-16).¹⁰ On carved lanterns such as the present piece, however, the quality of the micro-carving is inferior to that encountered with Netherlandish miniature carvings. Stylistically, the scenes also deviate markedly. The current, most tenable view is that these reliefs were carved in colonial Mexico by indigenous craftsmen after the 1521 Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, and were mainly sold to Europeans.¹¹ The Mexican origin of these objects is most evident in the (remnants of) iridescent blue/green feathers, presumably of the hummingbird, ornamenting the background of many of the reliefs. This decorative technique was commonly applied in Mexico, chiefly in the form of figurative feather mosaics made by specialized artisans known as amantecas.¹² Rock crystal was also used for artistic purposes in Mexico long before Spanish colonization. As early as the sixteenth century, exotic curios and precious objects from the New World were all the rage in Europe, as reflected in Albrecht Dürer’s journal entry enumerating the gifts sent by Hernán Cortés from Mexico – shortly before vanquished by the renowned explorer – to Emperor Charles V’s palace in Brussels in 1520.¹³

The carving’s Mexican origin is additionally supported by the existence of two liturgical goldsmith’s pieces, both furnished with the silver mark of Mexico City and adorned with the very same type of micro-carving encased in rock crystal, and again, set against a background of feathers.¹⁴ The first is a pax in a private collection, the second a chalice preserved at the Los Angeles County Museum, with both dating from circa 1575-78. Like the pendants, these objects are an interesting mix of local and European styles, techniques and materials. Micro-carved scenes produced in Mexico drew upon late-medieval European models up to the very end of the sixteenth century. In the absence of silver marks, this complicates a more precise dating.

Bieke van der Mark, 2024