Divine Nature: Feathered Microcarvings in the Early Modern World

Abstract

This essay reunites a diverse corpus of portable devotional objects likely created around the late sixteenth century which feature minute wooden carvings set against grounds of brightly coloured hummingbird feathers. While the Christological narratives that they commonly depict reveal clear links to the artistic traditions of Western Europe, the plumage that they sport is derived from a family of birds endemic to the Americas. This juxtaposition has inspired the scholars who address them to focus all but exclusively on determining their provenance. Yet their composite nature undermines simplistic notions of origin by suggesting the pathways that they travelled in the early modern world: while the carvings themselves were likely produced by Indigenous artists in central Mexico, the metal cases sported by several examples were made in Europe. After surveying the corpus and its place in previous scholarship, this essay turns to an examination of their reception by elite European audiences. It argues that such viewers drew formal and theological connections between the materials and iconography of these objects that greatly enhanced their potential to serve as effective tools for private devotion.