Inv. B 163
Side 1: bust of a young woman in profile, wearing a diadem, a veil, a pearl necklace and pearl earrings.
Side 2: skeleton in profile (Death).
Scroll with inscription: 'COGITA MORI'.
Foliated decoration.
Cologne 2006: Southern Netherlands, c. 1520.
Attribution
Unknown
Reverse
Carved in the round.
Comments
The ivory medallion is attached to a gilded metal cross at the top and to a cabochon dark green gem with black and gold inclusions at the bottom.
Provenance
Collection of Michel Boy, Paris: his sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 13-14 May 1905, lot 308. Collection of Peter and Irene Ludwig, Aachen (purchased in 1963 from Blumka, New York); on permanent loan to the Museum from 1963 to 2011; donated to the museum in 2011.
Bibliography
U. Bock, Memento Mori, Schnütgen Museum: Wege durch die Sammlung 3 (Cologne, year unknown).
500 Jahre Rosenkranz: 1475 - 1975, exhibition catalogue, Cologne, Erzbischöfliches Diözesan-Museum, 25 October 1975 - 15 January 1976.
A. von Euw, Schnütgen-Museum Köln (Cologne, 1984).
Der Rosenkranz. Andacht, Geschichte, Kunst, ed. by U.-B. Frei, F. Bühler (Bern, 2003).
Zum Sterben schön! Alter, Totentanz und Sterbekunst von 1500 bis heute, ed. by A. von Hülsen-Esch and H. Westermann-Angerhausen, Cologne, Schnütgen Museum, 2006, no. 47.
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