A BETHLEHEM MOTHER-OF-PEARL SHELL CARVING DEPICTING THE ANNUNCIATION Bethlehem, Palestine,...
A BETHLEHEM MOTHER-OF-PEARL SHELL CARVING DEPICTING THE ANNUNCIATION
Bethlehem, Palestine, 18th century
A mother-of-pearl shell etching with black ink depicting depicting the Virgin Mary, the Archangel Gabriel and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, framed by a floral border.
12.3cm x 12cm
Such carvings would have been produced as souvenir objects for Christian pilgrims visiting the Holy Land. The tradition of shell carving was introduced to Bethlehem by the Franciscans in the 16th century, as evidenced by the models of Holy Land shrines in Palestine that they commissioned from local artisans and exported to Catholic Europe—particularly Venice—via Acre by the mid-seventeenth century. Bethlehem subsequently became the manufacturing center of a global industry in religious souvenirs, extensively traded by merchants throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.
Literature:
Norris, J., Exporting the Holy Land: Artisans and Merchant Migrants in Ottoman-Era Bethlehem, in Mashriq & Mahjar 1, no. 2, 2013, p. 23.
A BETHLEHEM MOTHER-OF-PEARL SHELL CARVING DEPICTING THE ANNUNCIATION
Bethlehem, Palestine, 18th century
A mother-of-pearl shell etching with black ink depicting depicting the Virgin Mary, the Archangel Gabriel and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, framed by a floral border.
12.3cm x 12cm
Such carvings would have been produced as souvenir objects for Christian pilgrims visiting the Holy Land. The tradition of shell carving was introduced to Bethlehem by the Franciscans in the 16th century, as evidenced by the models of Holy Land shrines in Palestine that they commissioned from local artisans and exported to Catholic Europe—particularly Venice—via Acre by the mid-seventeenth century. Bethlehem subsequently became the manufacturing center of a global industry in religious souvenirs, extensively traded by merchants throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.
Literature:
Norris, J., Exporting the Holy Land: Artisans and Merchant Migrants in Ottoman-Era Bethlehem, in Mashriq & Mahjar 1, no. 2, 2013, p. 23.
