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Jewelry Box

Wenzel Jamnitzerc. 1560

Renaissance and Reformation. German Art in the Age of Dürer and Cranach

Renaissance and Reformation. German Art in the Age of Dürer and Cranach

This magnificent jewelry box is distinguished by its architectonically articulated structure with reliefs of the Passion of Christ and is crowned by a figural sculpture group of the Resurrection. Several examples of this type have still survived (Metropolitan Museum, New York; Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon, among others). A drawing in the treasury book of the Jesuit Church of Saint Michael in Munich documents that there was once another example there. The group may have been commissioned by Duke Albrecht V of Bavaria as an intended gift. The use of largely base metals distinguishes these boxes from more expensive secular examples, but they are by no means inferior to them in terms of artistic quality and extensive pictorial program.

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  • Title: Jewelry Box
  • Creator: probably from the Workshop of Wenzel Jamnitzer
  • Date Created: c. 1560
  • Physical Dimensions: 41 × 37 × 28 cm
  • Technique and Material: Copper, brass, and silver-gilt
  • Provenance: First mentioned in the inventory of the Schatzkammer after 1586
  • Museum: Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Grünes Gewölbe
  • Inv.-No.: IV 33
  • ISIL-No.: DE-MUS-061827
  • External Link: http://www.skd.museum/de/museen-institutionen/residenzschloss/gruenes-gewoelbe/historisches-gruenes-gewoelbe/index.html
  • Copyright: Photo © Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Grünes Gewölbe/ Jürgen Karpinski; Text © Renaissance and Reformation: German Art in the Age of Dürer and Cranach, A Cooperation of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, and the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen München, Catalogue of the Exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Nov 20, 2016 – March 26, 2017, Munich: Prestel, 2016; cat. no. 61 / Ulrike Weinhold
  • Catalogue: https://prestelpublishing.randomhouse.de/book/Renaissance-and-Reformation/Stephanie-Buck/Prestel-com/e504919.rhd
  • Artist Dates: c. 1507–8 Vienna–1585 Nuremberg
  • Artist Biography: Jamnitzer, born into a goldsmith’s family, passed his master’s exam in Nuremberg in 1534. He supplied the European nobility with refined metalwork, some of which integrated casts of natural objects, shells, and coral. The emperors from Charles V to Rudolph II were among his patrons. Jamnitzer also studied the sciences, especially optics and geometry, which he addressed in a treatise on perspective. He worked as a copperplate engraver and ornament designer and made a name for himself as a maker of mathematical instruments and furniture for art chambers.
Renaissance and Reformation. German Art in the Age of Dürer and Cranach

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