Reliquary Pendant: Pelicans
maker
Unknown
Dateabout 1510
Place MadeSouthern Germany, Germany, Europe
MediumSilver and crystal
Dimensions7.7 x 4.1 x 2 cm (3 1/16 x 1 5/8 x 13/16 in.)
ClassificationsJewelry
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession numberM27w552
eMuseum ID728823
EmbARK ObjectID12663
Original Numbernone, below M27w42 (I&N)
Previous Number261
TMS Source ID1727
Last Updated8/14/24
Status
Not on viewWeb CommentaryThis image symbolizes Christ's future suffering for man's salvation. Just as the pelican pierced its breast to feed its young, Christ sacrificed himself for the future of mankind. The crystal center of this German silver pendant was made to hold a holy relic, which could have been a fragment of bone, skin, or hair of a sacred individual. Isabella purchased it on a trip to Munich, Germany in 1897 when she and her husband Jack were surely discussing her future museum and its collection. She placed it with other liturgical items in the Ecclesiastical Case in the Long Gallery.
BibliographyNotes"Anhänger in Gestalt eines Pelikans (Anhänger)." Objektkatalog der Sammlungen des Germanischen Nationalmuseums online, accessed 2017. http://objektkatalog.gnm.de/objekt/T969
Nathaniel Silver and Diana Seave Greenwald. Isabella Stewart Gardner: A Life (Boston, 2022), pp. 99-101, fig. 51.
Nathaniel Silver and Diana Seave Greenwald. Isabella Stewart Gardner: A Life (Boston, 2022), pp. 99-101, fig. 51.
ProvenanceNotesPurchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from the antique dealer Theodor Einstein & Co., Munich on 16 August 1897 for 123 marks through her husband, John L. Gardner, Jr. (1837–1898). (as a reliquary)
Unknown
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