Rosary

Completing this rosary is a circular gilt-silver filigree medallion featuring the Coronation of the Virgin suspended from a silver wirework cross and three large, faceted amber beads. The inscription "Patrona Bavaria" (patroness of Bavaria) appears along the medal’s right edge, indicating the jewel’s or the wearer’s place of origin. The cult of Mary was especially strong in Bavaria, the heartland of the German Counter-Reformation. A profile image of a saint holding both a lily and the Christ Child appears on the back of the medal.3 Two silver filigree gauds adorn the middle of the second and fourth decades. The front of the larger gaud shows a nun wearing a black-and-white habit; the back shows Saint Veronica’s Napkin with the face of Christ. The smaller gaud has a central, oval medallion of gilt silver with images of the seated Madonna and Child on both the front and the back.

Yvonne J. Markowitz, “Rosary” in Artful Adornments: Jewelry from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston by Yvonne J. Markowitz (Boston: MFA Publications, 2011), 40-41.