Reliquary bust of a companion of Saint Ursula
About this video
This short video looks at a painted oak bust of one of Saint Ursula's legendary companions, made around 1500 to 1530, probably in Brussels. It looks like a lifelike portrait, but it is also a reliquary that once held a relic of a skull in the head and a second relic behind a window on the breast, and its gentle, communicative expression invited people to pray to the saint for help.
You'll be able to
- explain what a reliquary is and how this bust worked as one.
- explain why medieval people prayed to saints for intercession.
- describe how the sculpture's naturalism helps it connect with viewers.
Key words
- reliquary
- A container made to hold relics, such as bones of a saint.
- relic
- A physical remain of a saint, like a bone, treated as holy.
- intercession
- Praying to God on someone else's behalf; saints were asked to do this for believers.
- martyrdom
- Being killed because of one's religious beliefs.
- naturalism
- Showing people and things in a lifelike, realistic way.
Transcript
This is a work of incredible naturalism and astonishing beauty She's one of the maidens that accompanied St Ursula on pilgrimage St Ursula had eleven thousand virgin companions all of whom were slaughtered by the Huns according to legend and a great cult of St Ursula and her virgin masters emerges in the Middle Ages She's made of painted oak between the years of about 1500 - 1530 This one made probably in Brussels or South Netherlandish and she represents an aristocratic figure this elaborate hairstyle which is braided round the top of her head with festoons of drapery and hair around the back she's absolutely a perfectly beautifully observed work of portraiture but in fact the secret that it conceals was that it was also a reliquary
so inside the head there's a cavity which opens and that's where the relic of the skull of the Saint would have been kept A pendant hangs around her neck and behind a window on hear breast would have been a second relic possibly part of the breast bone When you look at her face she's communicating with you very directly she's making perhaps a sympathetic response to a prayer and because after all the Saints were entreated to for their powers of intersession So the idea is that someone would have prayed to the Saint and appealed for her help in adversity and the prayers of the Saint of course carrying much greater currency with God because the Saint's have proved their virtue through their martyrdom
She has this very beatific smile almost playing on her lips of all the objects in the exhibition this is one you feel might open her mouth and speak to you, might even move
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