Pendant to a Rosary or Chaplet

between 1500 and 1525

On View

European: Medieval and Renaissance, Level 2, West Wing

Pendant to a Rosary or Chaplet: 1 of Collection Gallery

Pendant to a Rosary or Chaplet: 2 of Collection Gallery

Pendant to a Rosary or Chaplet: 3 of Collection Gallery

Pendant to a Rosary or Chaplet: 4 of Collection Gallery

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About the Artwork

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Markings

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Provenance

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Exhibition History

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Published References

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Catalogue Raisonné

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Credit Line for Reproduction

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About the Artwork

This small ivory carving conveys one of the most profound themes of the late Middle Ages. The death mask joined to the gruesome skull serves as a memento mori, a reminder of the transitory nature of life and the inevitability of death. The repetition of prayers and liturgical texts was important part of medieval devotion. The rosary is a collection of these texts devoted to the Virgin Mary, which became popular by the fourteenth century. The strings of beads used to assist those in saying the long sequences of recitations became known as rosaries. This carving is pierced vertically for suspension, consistent with its original function as pendant to a rosary or chaplet, a shorter string of devotional beads.

Title Pendant to a Rosary or Chaplet

Artwork Date between 1500 and 1525

Artist ----------

Life Dates ----------

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. French

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. ----------

Medium Elephant ivory with traces of polychromy

Dimensions Overall: 2 3/4 × 1 1/4 × 1 1/2 inches (7 × 3.2 × 3.8 cm)

Classification Sculpture

Department European Sculpture and Dec Arts

Credit Founders Society Purchase, General Art Purchase Fund, Insurance Recovery Fund, David L. Klein, Jr. Memorial Foundation, European Sculpture and Decorative Arts Fund, Henry Ford II Fund, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Hamilton Fund for Medieval Art, with additional funds from Mr. and Mrs. Robert Hamilton

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 1990.315

Markings

Inscriptions Inscribed, around the collarbone below the two faces: O MORS QUAM AMARA EST MEMORIA TUA [translated: O death, how bitter it is to be reminded of you]

Provenance

(Blumka Gallery, New York, New York, USA);
1990-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

For more information on provenance, please visit:

Provenance page

Exhibition 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.

We welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.

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Published References

Zum Sterben Schoen. vol. 2, Schnutgen, Cologne. cat. no. 45, p.86.

Barnet, Peter, ed. Images in Ivory: Precious Objects of the Gothic Age. Exh. cat, DIA. Detroit, 1997, cat. no. 78, pp. 277-278.

Barnet, Peter. "Selected Recent Acquisitions." Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts 66, no. 4 (1991): 50 (ill.).

Medieval Masterworks 1200-1520. Exh. cat., Blumka II Gallery. New York, 1990.

Darr, A. and T. Albainy. "Acquisitions of European sculpture and decorative arts at the Detroit Institute of Arts, 1988 - 1999," The Burlington Magazine 142 (June 2000): p. 406, no. 4 (ill.).

Lowden, John, John Cherry. Medieval Ivories and Works of Art: The Thomson Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Toronto, 2008, p. 133.

Perkinson, Stephen, ed. The Ivory Mirror: The Art of Mortality in Renaissance Europe. Exh. cat., Bowdoin College Museum of Art. Brunswick, Maine, 2017, pp. 57–58, 61–62, 203, (pl. 36) (ill.).

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Catalogue Raisoneé

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Credit Line for Reproduction

French, Pendant to a Rosary or Chaplet, between 1500 and 1525, elephant ivory with traces of polychromy. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, General Art Purchase Fund, Insurance Recovery Fund, et al., 1990.315.