Frame for a Portable Reliquary Icon

With intricate carvings and lavish gilding, this frame holds 17 labeled relics, mostly bodily remains or belongings of saints, worshiped for their spiritual significance. The frame once contained a gilded glass image of the Virgin Mary and Christ child. A Latin inscription around the base likely refers to Mino Cinughi, rector (administrator) of the Hospital of Santa Maria della Scala in Siena during 1340–51, which cared for pilgrims on the way to Rome. <br>Believers sought healing in medieval hospitals through the veneration of relics hoping to elicit miracles from the saints. While this object probably resided on an altar, the ornamentation on both sides suggests it was also carried in processions.