Micro carving

Micro-carving or miniature carving is a collective term for particularly fine, small-format carvings in selected hardwoods or fruit kernels (botanically correct stone , see stone fruit ).

history

Even in ancient Greek literature there are reports of virtuoso artists who could have carved a team of four no bigger than a fly's wing, a ship smaller than a bee, or who could have written a Homer verse on a sesame seed.

Carving in a betnut, Flanders (?), 16th century. New York, The Cloisters

Micro-carvings from the Middle Ages and early modern times often show more complex scenes, such as the so-called betnuts , which were designed as hinged boxwood balls filled with reliefs in Flanders and served as rosary pendants , especially in the first half of the 16th century . Other works were in the form of tiny house altars.

In the chambers of art and curiosities of European princes and wealthy citizens, micro-carvings in fruit pits were almost an obligatory part of the inventory. Among other things, the following are preserved:

• Cherry pit from 1586 in the Amerbach-Kabinett , Basel, today Kunstmuseum Basel and Historisches Museum Basel see also → Amerbach (family) .
• several cherry stones in the green vault ,
• a carved walnut from the time of Frederik III. of Denmark (1648–1670) in Rosenborg Castle .

A number of relevant stage names have been collected from Philippovich (see literature).

literature

• Eugen von Philippovich : Curiosities - Antiques. A handbook for collectors and enthusiasts (= library for friends of art and antiques , Volume 46), Klinkhardt and Biermann, Braunschweig 1966, pp. 326–331, DNB 457803428 .