# Casket

- By: Venice, Italy
- Date: c. 1595
- Medium: Rock crystal, ebony, rosewood, walnut, silver gilt, paint, varnish, and glass
- Classification: Decorative Arts
- Dimensions: 30 × 41 × 31.1 cm (11 3/4 × 16 1/8 × 12 1/4 in.)
- Culture: Venice
- Credit line: Kate S. Buckingham Endowment Fund; Paul H. Leffmann and Chester D. Tripp Major Acquisition funds; Mary Waller Langhorne and Harry and Maribel G. Blum endowment funds; Irish Gala and Harry A. Root and Curtis Chapin Palmer European…
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/248927)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/e97aee54-1a8b-fee0-0e9e-56314ac36842/full/!1920,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

This casket, or chest, was conceived as a piece of heavenly architecture. Its contents can be glimpsed through 184 panels of hand-cut rock crystal (quartz). Two panels on the lid are engraved with the Latin phrase BONAE MATRI—VTERE FELIX \[To the good Mother—Use it with luck\]. According to tradition, Pope Clement VIII employed this and other similar pieces to present blessed linens to the mothers of first-born male children of European royal families.

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0