Gold and Enamel Devotional Pendant or Reliquary, Mallorca School, Spain

Devotional pendant or reliquary. Oil painting on aventurine, enamel, gold. Spain, 17th century. Medallion or devotional pendant or reliquary made of aventurine or aventurine with an octagonal shape and faceted fronts, enhanced with a series of enamels combining black and gold, which protect two oil paintings with a Catholic Christian religious theme, located one on each side of the piece. Protected, you can see a very particular Virgin with Child for being inspired by the Icon of the Madonna del Popolo (Rome, Italy), and a simplified Martyrdom of San Lorenzo (the saint, the grill and an angel with a crown and the palm corresponding to the subject). The edges of the piece have been protected with simple metal elements. The painting of San Lorenzo follows a common composition in the Spanish school, and would recall works such as the painting of the main altar of the Church of San Lorenzo de Huesca, for example, but also others such as the engraving by Marcantonio Raimondi (executed around 1527) in some details. The so-called icon of the Madonna del Popolo was well known for being considered as made by Saint Luke, and was brought to the church of the same denomination by Gregory IX from the Sancta Sanctorum of the Lateran Palace after a flood caused a terrible plague in the city and through a solemn procession with the image of Santa Maria del Popolo. Regarding the material of the piece, a certain type of glass and a type of quartz (which can be green or reddish-brown, and usually has tiny elements of yellow mica that give it golden reflections) is known as aventurine or aventurine. In the first case, it is known that “aventurine” or “stellaria” appears mentioned in the Murano workshops for the first time during the first quarter of the 17th century, in reference to a very complicated production paste (it is said that the name comes from of this circumstance, that is, that its creation was due to luck or luck) that imitates the effects of that stone (from India and Russia at that time) thanks to the inclusion of copper particles, and that it was used as if out of stone (cut) given the complexity of its use in blowing (practically impossible). And, dealing with this material, it is necessary to mention “The Nativity” by Pietro da Cortona, dated around 1656, which is kept in the El Prado...

One of its fronts presents a textile background under a transparent glass, space that was surely designed to contain relics. The other side has a brightly colored enamel with the Vir...