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Spice Box Shaped as a Skull
17th century
- Medium
- Silver gilt
- Classification
- Costume and Accessories
- Dimensions
- 3.2 × 2.2 × 2.7 cm (1 7/8 × 1 1/16 × 1 1/4 in.)
- Culture
- Germany
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Applied Arts of Europe
- Credit line
- Gift of Marilynn B. Alsdorf
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
A fitting accessory for an eerie end, this tiny macabre pendant—under an inch tall and wide—is also a rather surprisingly complicated spice box. The miniature spring-loaded button on the top opens the skull to reveal two sections, the back one divided into four compartments, and a panel engraved with the names of four aromatics: Negal (cloves), Muscha (nutmeg), Canel (cinnamon) and Schlag (schlagwasser, a mixture of brandy, primrose petals, and violets, thought to be a cardiac stimulant). The openings for the eye sockets, nasal passages, and missing teeth are not just anatomically correct; these perforations would have allowed the fragrances of the secreted spices to waft out and work their medicinal magic.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
