Jewelry box

P. Ben

1627 · Silver, engraved; brass, partially gilt · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An ambitious design for this type of miniature casket, this box is topped with a small coffer lid—instead of a handle—that slides open and could have held tiny treasures. Its decoration combines scenes from the ancient Roman poet Ovid’s Metamorphoses with emblems of love, likely drawn from Otto van Veen’s Amorum Emblemata. The romantic themes of this iconography associate this precious box with rituals of courtship or marriage.

Artist

P. Ben

Date

1627

Medium

Silver, engraved; brass, partially gilt

Culture

German, Nuremberg

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Purchase, Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Acquisitions Fund, 2018