page_title: Gothic boxwood miniature
section_title: Prayer nuts
hierarchical_section_title: Gothic boxwood miniature / Formats / Prayer nuts
context_page_description: Gothic boxwood miniatures are very small Christian wood sculptures produced during the 15th and 16th centuries in the Low Countries, at the end of the Gothic period and during the emerging Northern Renaissance. They consist of highly intricate layers of reliefs, often rendered to nearly microscopic level, and are made from boxwood, which has a fine grain and high density suitable for detailed micro-carving. There are around 150 surviving examples; most are spherical rosary beads, statuettes, skulls, or coffins; some 20 are in the form of polyptychs, including triptych and diptych altarpieces, tabernacles and monstrances. The polyptychs are typically 10–13 cm in height. Most of the beads are 10–15 cm in diameter and designed so they could be held in the palm of a hand, hung from necklaces or belts, or worn as fashionable accessories.
  Boxwood miniatures were highly prized in the early 16th century. Their iconography, form, and utility can be linked to medieval ivory carvings, as well as contemporary illuminated miniatures, altarpieces, panel paintings, sculpture, woodcuts, and engravings.
context_section_description: The English term Prayer nut comes from the equivalent Dutch word gebedsnoot, and took on common usage in the 18th century. The use of the word "nut" may be derived from the fact that some of the beads were actually carved from nuts or pits, and although no such miniatures survive, it was a known practice in medieval southern Germany. They are mostly the same shape (deliberately designed to resemble apples), decorated with carved openwork Gothic tracery and flower-heads, and of a size suitable for holding in the palm of a hand.
  Prayer nuts often contain central scenes depicting episodes from the life of Mary or the Passion of Jesus. Some are a single bead; more rare are those consisting of up to eleven beads, including the "Chatsworth Rosary" gifted by Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon, which is one of only two surviving boxwood rosaries. The figures are often dressed in fashionable contemporary clothing. The level of detail extends to the soldier's shields, their jacket buttons, jewellery, and candles. In some instances, they contain carved inscriptions usually related to the meaning of the narrative. There are more modest examples, such as the two medallions making up the "Half of a Prayer Bead with the Lamentation" (MS 17.190.458a, b) in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which shows the Virgin and Child alongside a kneeling nun holding a string of beads, and a Pietà. The two images are unusually simple for the type; only a small portion of the available surface of the borders contain inscriptions.
  The beads are quite uniform in size and shape, with a diameter ranging from around 30 to 65 millimetres. Suda notes how their "spiritual impact...[was] curiously...in inverse proportion to their size". They were often made as two half-shells that could be opened to reveal intricate interior detail. According to the art historian Dora Thornton, when the prayer nut was opened out, it "revealed the representation of the divine hidden inside. The interiors range considerably in complexity and detail, with the more simple consisting of a low relief cut into a disc that has been rounded off at the back. At their most detailed and complex, Suda describes how the beads "played out like a grand opera on a miniature stage, complete with exotic costumes, elaborate props and animals large and small" and observes how they have an "Alice in Wonderland" quality, wherein "one tumbles headlong into the tiny world created by the carver...into the world they reveal beyond one's immediate surroundings."
  Scholten notes that the tracery may have been intended to suggest that the object contained a small relic, "so that the object took on the character of a talisman and was deemed to have an apotropaic effect". A number contain a wooden loop in the middle of one half so they could be worn hanging from a belt, or carried in a case. A fragrant substance was sometimes placed inside the shell, which diffused when the beads were opened, making them comparable to the then fashionable pomanders.
  The shape of a prayer nut likely carried deep significance; with the outer sheath representing Christ's human flesh; the bead stand, his cross; and the interior reliefs, his divinity. According to Thornton, "unfolding the nut is in itself an act of prayer, like opening up a personal illuminated prayer book, or watching the leaves of a large scale altarpiece being hinged back in a church service". However, Scholten questions their use for private religious devotion, noting how their diminutive scale made them impractical for meditation, as their imagery was not discernible without a magnifying glass or strong spectacles.
caption: "Prayer Bead with the Crucifixion and Jesus before Pilate", interior view. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.[70]
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