Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Prayer Bead with the Annunciation and the Nativity
Not on view
This relatively simple bead presents two of the most well-known scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary: the angel’s announcement that she will be the mother of Jesus, and his birth at Bethlehem. Two of the wood pins that secure the lower half of the bead in its shell can be seen in the upper left and right at ten o’clock and two o’clock, near the shepherds in the fields. The source of the inscriptions that ring the scenes has not been identified, and, exceptionally, there are no inscriptions on the outside of the bead.
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