Most likely intended to represent one of the martyred maiden companions of Saint Ursula, this object is known as a "speaking" reliquary, for it is fashioned as the very body part it once contained. A door at the top of the head opens to reveal a cavity in which the skull of the saint was kept. Additional relics would have been displayed inside the small glazed medallion. Albrecht of Brandenburg's treasury included a number of comparable bust reliquaries of female saints depicted in contemporary aristocratic fashion with elaborate hairstyle, jewelry, and costume.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Reliquary Bust of a Female Saint
Date:ca. 1520–30
Geography:Made in possibly Brussels, Belgium
Culture:South Netherlandish
Medium:Oak, paint, gilt
Dimensions:Overall: 16 11/16 x 12 3/4 x 6 1/4 in. (42.4 x 32.4 x 15.9 cm)
Classification:Sculpture-Wood
Credit Line:The Cloisters Collection, 1959
Accession Number:59.70
[ Henry Hirsch, London (Sale, Christies, June 10-11, 1931)] ; [ Henri Heilbronner, Lucerne (from at least 1955–sold 1959)]
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution. "Hair," June 10–August 17, 1980.
Cleveland. Cleveland Museum of Art. "Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relics, and Devotion in Medieval Europe," October 17, 2010–January 17, 2011.
Baltimore. Walters Art Museum. "Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relics, and Devotion in Medieval Europe," February 13, 2011–May 15, 2011.
London. British Museum. "Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relics, and Devotion in Medieval Europe," June 23, 2011–October 9, 2011.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Cranach's Saint Maurice," April 20–July 27, 2015.
Museum Leuven. "Borman & Sons," September 20, 2019–January 26, 2020.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Eighty-Ninth Annual Report of the Trustees for the Fiscal Year 1958-1959." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 18, no. 2 (October 1959). p. 58.
"Chronache: New York." Emporium 136 (1962). pp. 121–22.
Rorimer, James J. The Cloisters: The Building and the Collection of Medieval Art in Fort Tryon Park. 3rd revised ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1963. p. 184, fig. 91.
Krohm, Hartmut. Spätmittelalterliche Bildwerke aus Brabant: Figuren heiliger Frauen von einer Grablegung Christi. Berlin: Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, 1976. pp. 32–33.
Hair: Cooper-Hewitt Museum, the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Design, June 10 to August 17, 1980. Washington, DC: Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution, 1980. p. 10.
Wixom, William D. "Medieval Sculpture at The Cloisters." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 46, no. 3 (Winter 1988-1989). p. 41.
Boehm, Barbara Drake. "Body-Part Reliquaries: The State of Research." Gesta 36, no. 1 (1997). p. 11.
Little, Charles T., ed. Set in Stone: The Face in Medieval Sculpture. New York, New Haven, and London: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2006. p. 190.
Bagnoli, Martina, Holger A. Klein, C. Griffith Mann, and James Robinson, ed. Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relics, and Devotion in Medieval Europe. Cleveland, Baltimore, and London: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2010. no. 108, p. 195.
Lefftz, Michel. "The Creative Identity of the Bormans: A Stylistic Approach." In Borman: A Family of Northern Renaissance Sculptors, edited by Marjan Debaene. Leuven: Museum Leuven, 2019. no. 174, p. 90.
Debaene, Marjan, ed. Borman: A Family of Northern Renaissance Sculptors. Leuven: Museum Leuven, 2019. no. 174, p. 246, ill. cover.
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