Adoration of the Magi; Pietà

Object Name

Prayer Bead

Artist/Maker

South Netherlandish

Object Type

Prayer Bead

Date

1483-1540

Medium

boxwood

Credit Line

The British Museum, London, United Kingdom

Object Number

WB.238

Location

Not currently on display

Institution/Owner

The British Museum

External Link

View this object on the source website

Upper half: Adoration of the Magi
Lower half: Pietà with St James the Greater and St Ursula; figures of male and female donors kneeling at either side. On the table on which they kneel are two paired shields of arms.

source: British Museum website

Signature, Inscriptions, and Markings

Inscription

Carved Latin inscriptions around edges:

VBI EST QVI NAT' EST REX IVDEOR VIDIMVS ENIM STELLA' EI' I ORIETE [inner upper; Matt.ii.2]

DOLENS POST MORTEM XPM SUSCEPIT IN ULNIS [inner lower]

Omnia dat Dominvs non habet ergo mi [outer]

Bene omnia fecit Dominvs marci [outer]

[source: British Museum website]

Markings

Carved coats of arms of Jacques de Borsele, Lord of Gouda and wife Ursula de Foreest on lower half below kneeling figures

Published References

Charles Hercules Read, 'The Waddesdon Bequest: Catalogue of the Works of Art bequeathed to the British Museum by Baron Ferdinand Rothschild, M.P., 1898', London, 1902, no. 238, pl.XLIX; O.M. Dalton, 'The Waddesdon Bequest', 2nd edn (rev), British Museum, London, 1927, no.238; Richard Marks, 'Two Early 16th Century Boxwood Carvings Associated with the Glymes Family of Bergen op Zoom', in Oud Holland, Jaarg. 91, No. 3, 1977, p. 140; Paul Williamson, 'Netherlandish Sculpture 1450-1550', London, 2002, p.140; Evelin Wetter, 'Zwei spätmittelalterliche Betnüsse aus den südlichen Niederlanden', in Monographien der Abegg-Stiftung Bern, 15, Abegg-Stiftung, Riggisberg, 2011, p.58; John Lowden and John Cherry, 'Medieval ivories and works of art : the Thomson Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario', Art Gallery of Ontario, Seattle, 2008, p.138, p.142;