Rosary Bead; Mass of Saint Gregory

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Title: Rosary Bead; Mass of Saint Gregory, ca. 1500-1510 Link to Smith College Museum of Art Collections Record: http://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?museum=all&t=objects&type=all&f=&s=rosary+bead&record=2 This rare and intricately carved bead was probably once part of a rosary, a chain of beads, each serving as a reminder to say a particular prayer in the Catholic rosary meditation. A marvel of technical accomplishment, this paternoster bead was associated with the “Our Father” prayer. Most of the surviving examples of such luxurious and costly rosaries (King Henry VIII of England owned one) appear to have been produced during the first three decades of the 16th century in a workshop in the southern Netherlands, which also made miniature carved boxwood altars and tabernacles. The two interior scenes express key Catholic doctrines. In the upper scene, Christ on the cross appears above the altar while St. Gregory (504-640?), one of the four Latin fathers of the Catholic Church, says mass.