Reliquary Bust of a Female Saint in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, March 2008

Reliquary Bust of a Female Saint
Painted and gilded wood
South Netherlandish, 16th century

Accession # 17.190.728

This piece is one of twenty-three related reliquary busts, many of which have a Spanish provenance. In addition to the compartment visible on the saint’s chest, a hinged opening at the top of her head gives access to another relic container.

Although long believed to be Spanish, this series of busts is closer in style to the work of sculptors from the southern Lowlands (Brabant or possibly Brussels), whose influence on Spanish sculpture in the late Gothic period was profound. Some examples may well have been carved in Spain by Brabantine artists who migrated to Spain during the period of close political and artistic relations at the end of the fifteenth and in the early sixteenth century. Another possible explanation is that the Habsburg emperor Charles V donated the pieces to Spanish churches, or that Spanish officials at his court in Brussels acquired the pieces and brought them back to Spain.

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.