Eglomisé Pendant of the Virgin and Child with Reliquary

Silver-Mounted Eglomisé Pendant Depicting the Virgin and Child with Reliquary of the True Cross.

Spanish, mid-17th century.

Measurements
• Height: 6.1 cm (including suspension loop and carnelian bead).
• Width: 2.5 cm
• Depth: 1 cm
• Weight: 17.8 grams

A devotional pendant comprising an oval rock crystal plaque, reverse-painted in verre églomisé with a finely detailed image of the Virgin and Child. The Madonna, robed in gold edged in black, inclines her head tenderly towards the Christ Child, both figures rendered in soft pale tones against a dark, gilded background. The scene is enclosed within a silver mount, the bezel edge worked with a precise dog’s-tooth setting.

The reverse holds an inset paper reliquary, framed in gilt and inscribed in Latin with the names of saints, centring on an oval compartment containing a relic of the True Cross, protected—like the obverse—by a cabochon rock crystal. The pendant is completed with a faceted carnelian bead in a gold mount, suspended from a silver ring.

Such pendants combined sacred imagery with relics to serve as potent aids to devotion, their precious materials and meticulous workmanship reflecting both the piety and status of their owners.