Relief mounted as a mirror frame
Wenzel Jamnitzer German
Adapted from the frontispiece of his groundbreaking geometry book Perspectiva, Jamnitzer’s relief is evidence of his status as the greatest Mannerist goldsmith in the German-speaking regions. Personifications of four of the seven liberal arts— Arithmetic, Geometry, Perspective, and Architecture— surround a central oval, which likely once held a portrait of the artist or a princely owner. The relief was probably used as a book cover, as owning a library of books with precious silver covers was one of the ways to express royal power.
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