Roundel, 1510???1520
Made in Amsterdam (?), North Netherlands
North Netherlandish
Colorless glass, vitreous paint and silver stain; Overall: 8 3/4 in. (22.2 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Cloisters Collection, 1972 (1972.245.3)
In this silver-stain roundel depicting the Adoration of the Magi, an urn with three golden blossoms of calendula appears below the Virgin and Child. The artist may have had more than one reason for choosing to show calendula here, but the fact that the gold paint of the silver-stain process so closely approximates the color of this Marian flower might have played a part. Photograph by Andrew Winslow.
To learn more about silver stain, see the Conservation & Art Material Encyclopedia Online (CAMEO) created by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.