About the Artwork
A group of remarkably intricate small sculptures were made from the end of the fifteenth through the early sixteenth century in the Duchy of Brabant. Carved in dense, fine-grained boxwood, most were associated with personal religious devotions, such as rosaries, prayer beads, and miniature altarpieces like this triptych, carved with microscopic precision in the style of late Gothic sculpture. These flawless, detailed carvings were greatly prized by the aristocracy of the time and they are still a source of delight.
Miniature Altarpiece with the Nativity and the Annunciation to the Shepherds
ca. 1520
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Netherlandish
Unknown
Boxwood
Overall (Open): 9 × 5 3/8 × 1 1/4 inches (22.9 × 13.7 × 3.2 cm) Overall (Closed): 9 × 3 3/8 × 1 1/4 inches (22.9 × 8.6 × 3.2 cm)
Sculpture
European Sculpture and Dec Arts
Founders Society Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund, Benson Ford Fund, and Henry Ford II Fund
79.177
This work is in the public domain.
Markings
Inscribed, along lower edge of triptych, from matthew 2:6: ET TV BETHLE[hem] | TERRA•IV[da] NEQVAQVAM MIN[im]A / ES I[n] PRI[n]CIPIB[u]S. [translated: But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah].
Provenance
1887-1979, (Nicholas Landau, Paris, France)
June 15, 1953, (Ernest Brummer, New York, New York, USA)
by descent, Ella Baché Brummer
October 16-19, 1979, sold at (Grand Hotel Dolder, Zurich, Switzerland) auction "The Ernest Brummer Collection," lot 136
(Galerie Koller, Zurich, Switzerland)
1980-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
For more information on provenance and its important function in the museum, please visit:
Provenance pageExhibition History
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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.
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Suggest FeedbackPublished References
Allan, William. "The Ernest Brummer Collection: Art objects from ancient Egypt to the Renaissance," Connoisseur 202, no. 812 (October 1979): 79–85, p. 79 (ill.).
The Ernest Brummer Collection, vol. 1: Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque Art. Sales cat., Gallerie Koller. Zurich, 1979, lot 136, p. 189 (ill.).
Mosby, Dewey. "Curatorial Reports, European Art," Bulletin of the DIA 58, no. 4 (1980): 192-196, p. 192 (ill.).
Kleinbauer, W. Eugene, ed. "Recent Major Acquisitions of Medieval Art by American Museums: Number Four," Gesta 21, no. 1 (1982): 75–80, pp. 79-80, (figs. 20-21) (ill.).
Wixom, William D. "A Brabantine Boxwood Triptych," Bulletin of the DIA 61, no. 1-2 (Summer 1983): 38–45, pp. 38-45 (ill.).
Darr, Alan Phipps. "European Sculpture and Decorative Arts Acquired by the Detroit Institute of Arts 1978–87," Burlington Magazine 130, no. 1023 (June 1988): 495–500, p. 495, (fig. 100) (ill.).
Romanelli, Susan Jean. "South Netherlandish Boxwood Devotional Sculpture, 1475-1530." Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 1992, pp. 219–221, cat. 6, pl. 15 (ill.).
Dandridge, Pete and Lisa Ellis. “Workshop Practices.” In Small Wonders: Late-Gothic Boxwood Micro-Carvings from the Low Countries, ed. Frits Scholten. Exh. cat., Rijks Museum. Amsterdam, 2016, p. 522-525, fig. 225; 545-546; 553; 557.
Scholten, Frits, ed. Small Wonders: Late-Gothic Boxwood Micro-Carvings from the Low Countries. Exh. cat., Rijks Museum. Amsterdam, 2016, pp. 306–310 (ill.), 623, no. 42.
Scholten, Frits. "The Boxwood Carvers of the Late Gothic Netherlands." In Small Wonders: Late-Gothic Boxwood Micro-Carvings from the Low Countries, ed. Frits Scholten. Exh. cat., Rijks Museum. Amsterdam, 2016, pp. 26-27, (fig. 11).
You, Yao-Fen. "A Miniature Netherlandish Treasure in Detroit." The Low Countries: Arts and Society in Flanders and the Netherlands, vol. 26 (2018): 30–33, pp. 30–33 (ill.).
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Credit Line for Reproduction
Netherlandish, Miniature Altarpiece with the Nativity and the Annunciation to the Shepherds, ca. 1520, boxwood. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund, Benson Ford Fund, and Henry Ford II Fund, 79.177.
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