Unknown German artist

Peapod with ten biblical scenes, c.1500, Boxwood, 10 cm long, Kunstgewerbemuseum, Staaliche Museen zu Berlin; F2497, bpk Bildagentur / Kunstgewerbemuseum / Photo by Ian Lefebvre / Art Resource, NY

Sowing Seeds

Commentary by Robert Hawkins

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Read by Ben Quash

Around 1500, a fashion for tiny boxwood ‘prayer nuts’ blossomed in Northern Germany and the Netherlands. Wealthy patrons could commission tiny rosaries and lockets replete with moving parts and biblical scenes. This peapod is an unusual and special example: its naturalistic form contains, within its tiny hinged ‘peas’, minute scenes from the Christian story, from Adam and Eve’s disobedience to their final redemption in Christ.

The third day of creation sees the arrival of vegetation, and the text pays particular attention to seeds (Genesis 1:11–12). This is therefore the kind of world in which things reproduce: plants and animals; later, ideas and language. For now, it is fruit and vegetables that propagate, and God will offer them to humanity for food (1:29) only to revise this original vegetarianism (9:3) in light of humanity’s disobedience. Fruit becomes, of course, an emblem for humanity’s whole predicament (Genesis 3), even as the tiniest of seeds becomes a symbol for the saving power of faith (Matthew 17:20).

The boxwood prayer nuts are feats of compression, of multum in parvo, the ingenious cramming of much into a small space. Like real seeds, they are meant to contain the vital information that will enable life. Like Julian of Norwich’s hazelnut (Spearing 1998: 47), they contain the whole of salvation history, shrunk to the compass of a tiny shell. Their craftsmanship was meant to astound—just as seeds are themselves astonishing pieces of biochemistry, perfect parcels of genetic information.

The seeds within this tiny seedpod are stories. They were designed to prompt reflection on the gifts of creation and salvation. Whoever owned this, whoever carried it around with them, thumbing its smooth curves and playing with the tiny scenes inside, they hoped that these stories would take root deep within them, and one day bear fruit. 

 

References

Scholten, Fritz (ed.). 2016. Small Wonders: Late-Gothic Boxwood Micro-carvings from the Low Countries (Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum)

Spearing, Elizabeth(trans.). 1998. Julian of Norwich: Revelations of Divine Love (London: Penguin)

See full exhibition for Genesis 1:6–23

Genesis 1:6–23

Revised Standard Version

6 And God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” 7And God made the firmament and separated the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament. And it was so. 8And God called the firmament Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.

9 And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. 10God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. 11And God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, upon the earth.” And it was so. 12The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13And there was evening and there was morning, a third day.

14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, 15and let them be lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. 16And God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; he made the stars also. 17And God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth, 18to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.

20 And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the firmament of the heavens.” 21So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.

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