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].
- 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
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
2017 7 Mar - 4 June, Cambridge, The Fitzwilliam, Madonnas and Miracles.
- Acquisition date
- 1897
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- AF.2899