Prayer Nut with Scenes from the Life of St. James the Greater (c. 1500–1530): Art, History and Details

Prayer Nut with Scenes from the Life of St. James the Greater (c. 1500–1530) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Adam Dircksz (Netherlandish, active c. 1500); Workshop.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Prayer nuts are capsules that can be opened in half and were mainly worn from the end of the 1400s until 1530, particularly in the Netherlands. These objects are generally made from boxwood and carved with extreme refinement and delicacy. They often echo Gothic architecture and include openwork tracery or elaborate decorative patterns. Prayer nuts came into fashion for private devotion as a pendant on the rosary or on a decorative chain. The emergence of prayer nuts went hand in hand with the practice of praying the rosary more frequently at the end of the Middle Ages.

Object facts

• Title: Prayer Nut with Scenes from the Life of St. James the Greater
• Date: c. 1500–1530
• Creator attribution: Adam Dircksz (Netherlandish, active c. 1500); Workshop
• Culture: Northern Netherlands (Holland)
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: boxwood
• Dimensions: Overall: 5.8 x 4.8 cm (2 5/16 x 1 7/8 in.)
• Collection: MED - Gothic
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1961.87

A detail from the museum

This miniature masterpiece was held and caressed within the palm of the holder as they prayed and meditated on their faith. What do you use to focus or engage in quiet concentration?

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• “Twelve Additions to the Medieval Treasury.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 59, no. 4 (April 1972): 87–111.
• Scholten, Frits, ed., Small Wonders: Late-Gothic Boxwood Micro-Carvings from the Low Countries. Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum Publications Department, 2016.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.