LabelMatthias Walbaum was one of the best goldsmiths in sixteenth-century Augsburg, and elaborate shrines of an almost neo-Gothic character were the specialty of his workshop. This jewel-like example, in the form of a triptych, documents episodes from the New Testament in hierarchical order. Atop the shrine is a Visitation scene with figures of Saints Anne and Elizabeth and an announcing angel. On the front of the doors are silver figures enacting the Annunciation. The doors open into a miniature triptych painted in gouache by Anton Mozart, with the Nativity at the center, the Presentation on the right wing, and the Circumcision on the left. A tiny panel illustrating the Flight into Egypt forms the predella. On the stem of the shrine a Christ in silver bears his cross to Calvary; beneath, his collapsed figure hangs from his mother's arms in a Pietà. On the four sides of the base, the Evangelists, identified by their attributes, record the events pictured above.

Signatures, Inscriptions, and MarkingsSignature: [on central panel]: A M f 98 [Anton Mozart fecit 1598]
Marks: [on back of finial piece, at base]: flower within a shield (maker's mark of Matthias Walbaum); pine cone (Augsburg town mark)

ProvenanceMr. Eugen Gutmann(by 1907); J. Pierpont Morgan, New York and London (until 1913); J. Pierpont Morgan Jr., New York (by descent, 1913–1917)