medallion; niello plate

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Object Type: medallion; niello plate
Museum number: AF.2899
Description: Medallion; Agnus Dei, silver; nielloed; gilt mount; three loops for attachment; Vernicle rose surrounded by openwork intersecting arcs of circles; red cloth beneath; inscription on border. On the other side, nielloed image of St Veronica with the Sudarium [ cloth imprinted with face of Christ after she had wiped sweat from it with this cloth during his Passion].
Production place: Made in: Italy
Materials: silver; gold; niello; cotton
Technique: nielloed; gilded
Dimensions: Length: 2.05 inches
$Inscriptions
Curator's comments: For this pendant as an Agnus Dei see Irene Galandra Cooper in Madonnas and Miracles, ex.cat. Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge, plate 120, pp.130-1. She relates it to a print of 1567 in BM showing the Pope blessing Agnus Dei. Relates to an openwork Agnus, sold at Sotheby's 3 July 2012, illustrated op.cit fig.46. Klapisch Zuber, Women, Family and Ritual, Chicago 1985, p. 149 fig.7.1 for painting in Pistoia showing Infant John the Baptist holding teether of coral, a wolf's tooth, a cross and one of these medallions.Mentions of these Agnus Dei in wills show that they were often accompanied by coral branches as charms for babies. Cherry article discusses some of these references.DFT
Bibliographic references: Hind 1936 / Nielli. Chiefly Italian of the XV Century Plates, Sulphur Casts and Prints Preserved in the British Museum (114) (recto); Tait 1976 / Jewellery Through 7000 Years (273c); Cherry 2003 / Containers for Agnus Deis (fig. 19.7); Syson & Thornton 2001 / Objects of Virtue, Art in Renaissance Italy (p. 62)
Location: Not on display
Exhibition history: 2017 7 Mar - 4 June, Cambridge, The Fitzwilliam, Madonnas and Miracles.
Subjects
Associated names: Associated with: St Veronica; Associated with: Jesus Christ
Acquisition name
Acquisition date: 1897
Department: Britain, Europe and Prehistory
Registration number: AF.2899

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