Creative Commons License
Prayer Bead with Christ and Saint James
Prayer beads carved in distinctive black jet with the conjoined, back-to-back heads of Christ and Saint James, both bearded, were popular mementos of the famous pilgrimage shrine dedicated to Saint James (Santiago) at Compostela in Spain. St. James wears the pilgrim’s hat with cockleshell, the badge of his shrine at Compostela. Dealers’ inventories at Compostela record large stocks of jet devotional objects for sale to the pilgrims. Jet was easy to carve and it brilliance was thought to intercept the evil eye. Jet is a dense black coal widely mined in northern Spain. It can be carved and polished to a bright sheen; however, it is brittle and it takes great skill to carve even very small objects.
Provenance
Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.
Marvin C. Ross [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1941, by gift.
Exhibitions
| 1979-1980 | Jewelry - Ancient to Modern. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. |
| 1971-1972 | World of Wonder. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. |
Geographies
Spain (Place of Origin)
Measurements
15/16 x 5/8 x 11/16 in. (2.3 x 1.6 x 1.8 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Marvin C. Ross, 1941
Location in Museum
Accession Number
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
41.233