Jewelry

The Agnes Dei is both a powerful symbol of Christ as sacrifice and, in the later Middle Ages, a tangible object of great power

 Double-sided circular pendant with silver gilt frame consisting of twisted rope ornament, with a foliate base for pendant loop. The obverse is set with a silver and niello roundel depicting the Lamb of God (Agnus Dei); a roundel set in the reverse shows the IHS-monogram for Jesus. The pendant shows signs of wear through age and is in good wearable condition.

Provenance:

Ralph T. Coe Center for the Arts Collection, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Literature:

Such pendants with inserted medallions in silver and niello were popular in Northern Italy in the second half of the fifteenth century and the iconography was both sacred and profane, and even amuletic. The most common motifs are a woman in profile view, the busts of a couple facing each other, or religious scenes, Agnus Dei and often on the reverse the IHS monogram (a monogram symbolizing Christ). Their function ranges from being a love token, or a betrothal or wedding gift through to use as a reliquary and even amulet for soldiers.  For variations and examples of the type in museum collections, see: Anna Beatriz Chadour/Rüdiger Joppien, Schmuck I and II, Kunstgewerbemuseum, Cologne 1985, vol. I, no. 53.

Similar devotional pendants with Agnus Dei medallions can be found in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (inv. no. OA 10342); the British Museum, London (inv. nos.AF 2892, AF 2898, 1902.0527.26 with shell cameo) and in an example in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Agnus Dei appears on the reverse of a marriage pendant (see: Yvonne J. Markowitz, Marriage Pendant, in: Artful Adornments: Jewelry from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 2011, p.107.  Often the Agnus Dei on the obverse is accompanied by the IHS monogram (sacred monogram) on the reverse, which symbolizes Jesus and God’s presence in daily life with protective function.

The Agnus Dei, Lamb of God, represents Christ and serves as a reminder when John the Baptist meets Christ and exclaims “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the World” (Gospel John 1:36). Devotional pendants with this motif were worn to protect the wearer in marriage, childbirth, fertility, and perils such as disease and natural disasters. It has not been proven if these specific pendants contained a small disc of the sacred wax from the Easter candle, that was blessed by the Pope, in comparison to a ritual container in the British Museum, London (1999,1002.1).  

For more detailed information on the iconography and use of the Agnus Dei, cf. Irene G. Cooper, Investigating the “Case” of the Agnus Dei in Sixteenth-Century Italian Homes, in: Domestic Devotions in Early Modern Italy, 2018, pp. 220-243; John Cherry, Containers for Agnus Dei, in: Through a Glass Brightly: Studies in Byzantine and Medieval Art and Archaeology Presented to David Buckton, 2003, pp. 171–183