Hat Badge with Veronica's Veil

Description Hat badges were one of the most common types of personal jewelry during the Renaissance, worn predominately by wealthy men. In the Middle Ages, men pinned brooches to their hats in order to demonstrate their political and social allegiances; during the Renaissance, however, hat badges asserted the wearer's individuality. They usually depicted the owner's personal emblem, mythological episodes, or scenes from Scripture, as in this representation of Veronica's Veil, a cloth with the image of Jesus miraculously imprinted on it. A famous and widely venerated relic during the Middle Ages, the veil disappeared from St. Peter's Basilica in 1600.

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
6/12/1984	Treatment	other

Exhibitions

• Jewelry - Ancient to Modern. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1979-1980.
• Objects of Adornment: Five Thousand Years of Jewelry from the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York; Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio; Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa; Honolulu Academy of Arts, Honolulu; New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans; Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee; Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis; Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo; The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota. 1984-1987.
• Jewelry from the Walters Art Gallery and the Zucker Family Collection. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1987.
• Bedazzled: 5,000 Years of Jewelry from the Walters Art Museum. Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville; The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota; The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. 2006-2009.
• Bedazzled: 5,000 Years of Jewelry. El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso. 2010.

Provenance Henry Walters, Baltimore [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters