but few can match the intricate detail of these,
it is thought that all of these works were created during a 30-year window between 1500 and
1530, somewhere in Flanders or the Netherlands,
the tiny altarpieces,
rosaries, and prayer beads are each produced from a single boxwood fragment,
incorporating pins smaller than a grass seed that hold the pieces together,
using micro CT scanning and Advanced 3D Analysis Software,
curators and conservators of Small Wonders: Gothic Boxwood Miniatures an
exhibition at The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) in collaboration with the
Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Rijksmuseum have gained new insight into the
materials and subject matter of each boxwood carving,
Small Wonders: Gothic Boxwood Miniatures will showcase AGO’s collection along with 50 other loaned pieces from other museums and private collections, including some rare carvings that have never been seen in North America,
one work above, the eleven-bead Chatsworth Rosary (c. 1509-1526),
was owned by King Henry VIII and his wife Catherine of Aragon, the bead was given to
the couple as a wedding gift in 1509, before Henry banned rosary use in England
in 1534, one of many anti-Catholic changes instituted as part of the Reformation, You can tour the
full exhibition yourself at the AGO through January 22, at the Met Cloisters on
February 21, 2017, or when the exhibition makes its last stop at the
Rijksmuseum on June 15, 2017,
You can also follow AGO on their journey to discovering the
mystery behind the boxwood miniatures in the video above, unfortunately with no
sound, to show how the AGO staff unlock this 500 hundred year old mystery, what
a fascinating insight into carvings up to and including a gift fit for a King.
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