{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O128519"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O128519/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AL5795/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AL5795/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AL5795","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AL5794","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O128519/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O128519","accessionNumber":"225-1866","objectType":"Miniature altar","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"Carved boxwood roundels of religious scenes were a Netherlandish speciality of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century. Many of them acted as pendant beads for rosaries. Within about fifty years of having been carved, the roundel was incorporated into a mount in the form of a 'house-altar'. These were free-standing small images, some portable, which were intended for domestic use in private prayer. The lay couple kneeling at the prayer desks are the original owners of the carving, and the saints presenting them to the Virgin and Child and Saint Anne would have been their patrons, perhaps even their name saints.","physicalDescription":"A round relief of the Virgin and Child with St Anne. Below them are figures of a male and female donor at prayer desks, the man presented by St James the Greater, and the woman by St Michael. The relief is mounted in a silver miniature altar in the form of a triptych, with hinged semi-circular wings. The console is pierced with a quatrefoil diaper. The wings are decorated with foliate designs. The top has an escutcheon with the head of a cherub, topped by a figure of God the Father.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"boxwood","id":"AAT12002"},{"text":"silver","id":"AAT11029"}],"techniques":[{"text":"hand carving","id":"x34992"},{"text":"casting","id":"AAT53104"},{"text":"engraving (incising)","id":"AAT53829"},{"text":"piercing","id":"AAT231153"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Boxwood and silver","categories":[{"text":"Religion","id":"THES48900"},{"text":"Christianity","id":"THES48978"},{"text":"Woodwork","id":"THES48877"},{"text":"Metalwork","id":"THES48920"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"MET","id":"THES48599"},"images":["2006AL5795","2006AL5794"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"10","id":"THES49099"},"free":"","case":"CA5","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Shrine","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Netherlands","id":"x29020"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"north, probably"}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1500-1520","earliest":"1500-01-01","latest":"1520-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""},{"date":{"text":"1550-1570","earliest":"1550-01-01","latest":"1570-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"9.3","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"7.8","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"when open","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"4","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"when closed","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"2","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Weight","value":"4","unit":"g","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Measured for the Medieval and Renaissance Galleries","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"This object was bought at the sale of the Le Carpentier collection in Paris, 23rd May, 1866. Nothing is known of its provenenace before this date.\r\n\r\nThe lay couple represented kneeling at the prayer desks in the roundel must represent the original patrons of the carving, and the saints presenting them to the Virgin and Child and Saint Anne would have been their patrons, perhaps even their name saints. The two blank shields on the prayer desks, however, render any positive identification of these patrons impossible. Representation of patrons in reliefs of this sort was not unusual - Williamson has compared the V&A relief with a relief in the British Museum which shows the kneeling figures of Jacques de Borsele, Lord of Gouda, and his wife Ursula de Foreest, being presented by Sts James and Ursula.\n\nHistorical significance: During the fifteenth century, there had been an increasing emphasis on the importance of private prayer being regularly undertaken by lay people. This trend fuelled a massive growth in domestic religious images. This object shows a husband and wife being presented to the Virgin and Child with St Anne by their patron saints, whilst kneeling at prayer desks. In other words, it is a visual representation of the way in which the prayers of these lay people to the saints were expected to benefit their souls through the saints' intercession on their behalf.","historicalContext":"Carved boxwood roundels of religious scenes were a Netherlandish speciality of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century. The most familiar examples are those hinged double roundels which seem to have acted as pendant beads for rosaries, and which when opened to reveal the religious image, would have acted as a focus for prayer. There are no traces of a hinge on the border of this roundel, but if it were part of a pendant, then it would have been originally set into a hemispherical frame, which may have been hinged. In any case, within about fifty years of having been carved, the roundel had been incorporated into a silver mount which takes the form of a miniature 'house-altar' - a term which denotes free-standing small images, some portable, which took their inspiration from larger church altarpieces, but which were intended for domestic use in private prayer. The rope-work silver loop at the back of this piece is unusual, and might indicate that it was suspended - it may however, simply have been an easy handle for carrying the object.","briefDescription":"Miniature altar","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Williamson, P. <font -u>Netherlandish Sculpture 1450-1550</font> (London: V&A, 2002), pp. 146-7, cat. no. 48."}],"production":"Boxwood carvings of this type were a speciality of the Netherlands in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. The silver mounts are clearly of later date (about fifty years), but are also Netherlandish.","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"The Virgin Mary","id":"N480"},{"text":"St. Anne","id":"N821"},{"text":"Christ Child","id":"N4624"},{"text":"St. James the Great","id":"N933"},{"text":"Michael (Saint)","id":"N631"},{"text":"God","id":"N809"}],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"donors","id":"AAT25240"},{"text":"cherubim","id":"x35266"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"Portable Shrine\r\nRoundel about 1500-20\r\nMount 1550-70\r\n\r\nThe carved wooden roundel shows a kneeling couple being presented by St James the Greater (left) and St Michael (right) to the Virgin Mary, her mother St Anne and the Christ Child. It may once have been part of a rosary, but it was later housed in a silver shrine.\r\n\r\nProbably northern Netherlands\r\nBoxwood and silver\r\nMuseum no. 225-1866","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null}},{"text":"SHRINE\r\nSilver, set with a late 15th century boxwood carving of St. James the greater and an angel presenting two kneeling figures to the Virgin and Child and St. Anne. \r\nSecond half of the 16th Century\r\nUnmarked","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null}}],"partNumbers":["225-1866"],"accessionNumberNum":"225","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1866,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":["2017KA3173","2017KA3174","2019LM5760","2019LU4827","2019LV3212","2019LV3130","2019LW5356"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-16","recordCreationDate":"2006-10-12","availableToBook":false}}