As L. Arbeteta points out, the reliquary lockets and devotional medallions and plaques, as well as crucifixes, were favored by the devout in Spain and, by extension, in the Spanish Indies. The popular name for reliquaries is actually the generic locket, which is still defined in the Royal Spanish Academy's Spanish Dictionary as a piece of jewelry in the shape of a small, flat box where portraits, paintings or other keepsake objects are generally kept. Therefore, lockets may or may not contain relics. When the cherished illustrations are of a devotional subject, they are called, by extension, reliquaries. There is confusion between true reliquaries, those used to hold sacred remains, and their corresponding and non-authentic versions. The use of both words helps to remind us that they are essentially lockets for personal use, at the same time as being objects of a devotional nature.[1]
A fairly common type in the New Spanish and Mexican jewelry since the seventeenth century is the elliptical locket with windows on the front and back, and a silver-colored or gilded silver fastening frame with a ring on its upper side for fastening and hanging, which may or may not be perpendicular to the frame. Beveled glass is inserted inside the large oval windows, either with eight sides or smooth. Due to its hardness and resistance, which ensured the preservation of the venerated remains, rock crystal lunas were widely used; its transparency or visibility allowed one to see the illustrations or relics kept inside. This type of glass was generally imported into Spain from the workshops of Milan, while in Colonial Mexico the use of this material dates back to Pre-Hispanic times.
An evidence to the widespread use is the collection of reliquary lockets from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries kept in the Soumaya Museum;[2] or the many blank gold reliquaries, in gold, enameled brass, with prints of Christ, the Virgin or the saints on one or both sides (Saint Joseph and the Immaculate Conception, Our Father Jesus and Our Lady of Solitude; Jesus, Our Lady of the Rosary, Our Lady of Solitude; Saint Augustine, Saint Xavier, Saint Christopher, Saint Anthony) or Agnus wax discs, inventoried in 1763 upon the death of the prestigious silversmith from Puebla Jose de Aguilar at his silversmith's store on Mercaderes Street. [3]
The three reliquary lockets in the Amparo Museum follow this model, with frames or cases that have molded and semi-circular shaped borders and rims; or with windows that open on hinges, and edges with incised decoration made up of leaves and plants with rococo features; or with triple indentations of a classical style.
Their representations show illustrations or miniatures inspired by the Baroque paintings from New Spain, captured in oil on paper or metal sheets, although the inability to access its interior prevents us from corroborating it fully.
The one shown here, that seems to be more ancient, has two miniatures with Saint Michael, accompanied by his nickname on one side, and on the other side the iconography of the Five lords, with Christ on his throne as sovereign of the universe, between the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph, and Saint Joachim and Saint Anne on the lower step[4].
[1]. Cf. Arbeteta, 1998: page 37; and Egan, 1993.
[2]. Cf. AA VV, 2004: and Egan, 1993: pages 31-53.
[3]. Neff, 2010.
[4]. A similar locket exists in the National Museum of Decorative Arts (Madrid). Dating back to the first half of the eighteenth century, it shows the Virgin of Guadalupe and Saint Joseph with the Child. Cf. Arbeteta, 1998: page 112, nº 50.
Sources:
AA VV, Santuarios de lo íntimo. Portrait in miniature and reliquaries. The Soumaya Museum collection, Mexico, Telmex, Soumaya Museum, 2004.
Arbeteta, Letizia. “La joya española. De Felipe II a Alfonso XIII”, in La joyeria española. De Felipe II a Alfonso XIII en los museos estatales, Madrid, Ministry of Education and Culture, 1998, pages 11-78.
Egan, Martha J., Reliquaries. Devotional Miniatures from the Americas, Santa Fe, Museum of New Mexico Press, 1993.
Neff, Franziska, Fuentes para el estudio del Arte en Puebla, unpublished research paper, 2010.
