RELIQUARY PENDANT. SILVER, ENAMEL. 17TH CENTURY.

Locket pendant. Silver, enamel, textile. XVII century. Polygonal pendant of significant size and silver frame in its color decorated with small pearls of the same material located in the corners of the edge that has a ring at the top so it can be hung or worn. One of its fronts presents a textile background under a transparent glass sheet, surely designed to contain relics. The other has a brightly colored enamel showing the Virgin Mary in three quarters, with the naked Child Jesus in her arms and both silhouetted figures on a landscape background with classicist architectural elements (column with a fluted shaft on a pedestal, with moldings) and details of a natural landscape (thus being able to link the moment with the Rest during the Flight into Egypt; compare, also, with works such as the Virgin and Child by Anton van Dyck from the Cerralbo Museum in Madrid or the oil painting from The Walters Art Museum, or the engraving by Paulus Pontius following models by Van Dyck - where the elements coincide in arrangement with those of the medallion -, for example). This type of jewelry always had great value both for the materials in which they were made and for their religious content. Despite this (or perhaps because of this same appreciation) not many quality examples are preserved and in good condition, being possible to find them only in important private collections and in prominent museums such as the Fundación Valencia de Don Juan in Madrid, the Museo National Center for Decorative Arts in the same city, etc., or ancient religious centers such as the Convento de las Descalzas Reales in Madrid.

· Size: 6,5x0.5x8 cms.