Crucifixion Relief from a Rosary Bead
1500–25
- Medium
- Wood
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Dimensions
- Diam.: 4.5 cm (1 3/4 in.)
- Culture
- Flanders
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Credit line
- Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection
- 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
Private prayer and contemplation were fundamental to Catholic practice. The intimate scale and detailed workmanship of this wooden bead was intended to inspire both visual and spiritual wonder. The sequence and number of beads in a rosary also gave structure to prayers; rosaries could also be personalized with detailed ornaments, like a prayer nut carved to depict Jesus's crucifixion.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
