A Boxwood Triptych in the Collection of the Hispanic Society of America

Book excerpt: Boxwood, close-grained and hard, has been destined for the production of minute and highly-finished carvings. Portrait medallions, a natural development of its use for patterns, were made from it by the German and Flemish sculptors and medalists of the sixteenth century. Even more peculiar to this material are certain microscopic pieces. Many of them are so similar in style that they are attributed to a single workshop which flourished in the early part of the sixteenth century either in Flanders or possibly in Germany. -- Preface.