16th Century Boxwood Carvings Are So Miniature Researchers Used X-Ray To Solve Their Mystery
There are only 135 known miniature boxwood carvings and they have been puzzling art specialists all over the world. Recently, researchers have gathered some of these tiny religious pieces from museums and private collections to further study their secrets and have found a few very interesting answers.
It is thought that these wooden carvings were made during only a brief time frame, between 1500 and 1530 either in Flanders or the Netherlands. The rise of a new merchant social class in Europe created a market demand for high-quality portable religious carvings. However, soon the Reformation began and a lot of church-related accessories went out of fashion, including the miniature boxwood pieces.
Using micro-CT scanning and Advanced 3D Analysis Software, researchers found out just how intricate these miniature altars really are. The inner layers are pieced together, hiding the joints so completely, that only a microscope or an X-ray can detect them. The pieces also incorporate pins, smaller than a grass seed. However, much of the production process remains unknown, because traces of gold and other decoration materials conceal the X-ray views.
More info: ago. ca | YouTube (h/t: colossal)
Researchers took these 500-year-old miniature boxwood carvings to the lab to find out their secrets
They think these miniatures were made between 1500 and 1530 in Flanders or the Netherlands
The human eye isn’t able to analyze details this tiny
So researchers used micro-CT scanning and Advanced 3D Analysis Software
To find out how intricate the pieces really are
They found joints in the inner layers so tiny that only a microscope or an X-ray can detect them
And pins, smaller than a grass seed
But even the advanced technology couldn’t see everything
Because traces of gold and other decoration materials conceal the X-ray views
The miniatures were a result of a rising new social class in Europe that created a demand for these high-quality portable religious carvings
However, soon the Reformation began and a lot of church-related accessories went out of fashion
The miniatures are amazing, however the whole article is rubbish. Especially the grammar and the lack of x-ray pictures. All we see is photos of 'miniatures' but without anything added for scale [a banana would have been fine].
I agree on all counts but especially the x-rays! I mean they're interesting and all but I'd not have bothered if I'd know there wasn't going to be any investigation shows.
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If this is truth: "The human eye isn’t able to analyze details this tiny" and is this is truth: "They found joints in the inner layers so tiny that only a microscope or an X-ray can detect them" - how then was it possible that people 500 years ago looking with nothing than their own eyes could carve them? And what the heck is the size of a grass seed? With perfectly fine length measures available that everyone could understand ... why would you use "the size of a grass seed" as comparison?
They are very beautiful. Add to the list of things we still do not understand. I'm amazed with the comments of some people. Instead of focusing on the Art, some are focused on the writing and how they could have done a better job. Thank's Bored Panda for exposing me to the wonderful art. I'm intelligent enough to follow up with research on my own.
The Youtube video gives you more details: https://youtu.be/ytTcrjKMzcc
This is indeed and truly, a "monumental" work of art for something so "microscopic", so precise! Practically, no room for error! Amazing!
You are not supposed to be a religious person to admire pure art
Load More Replies...
Agree with various commenters - an explanation/further details would have been nice! Have found this for anyone who's interested: http://edition.cnn.com/2016/12/09/arts/mystery-of-the-boxwood-miniatures/
Absolutely Amazing in the size and scope of engineering that goes into just one of these carvings, We are loosing technique's and tremendous style in almost everything that is actually man made, just look at the old world buildings, we don't have craftsmen that can begin to build anything other than a plane box! Let's face it, a box is a box, but the adornment on the outside speaks tomes about the craftsmen that created these ancient works of art!
Field Trip: https://www.ago.net/small-wonders-gothic-boxwood-miniatures and http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/09/arts/mystery-of-the-boxwood-miniatures/
How bored are you? http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/09/arts/mystery-of-the-boxwood-miniatures/ and https://www.ago.net/small-wonders-gothic-boxwood-miniatures
Omg,beautiful,to beautiful for words.Where are they being stored?I would give anything to own one.As if.
Yeah, the article is terrible. Bored Panda has turned into a click-baitey advertising machine. Too bad.
Too many adds.....it's like watching a re-run on a tv show. And I haven't watched tv in years. Bored Panda? I've been bored w the world too long.
The website devoted to the exhibition of these objects at the Art Gallery of Ontario offers much more details about their creation... http://boxwood.ago.ca/
I would love to see the X-rays of these... too bad this article falls short
These are beautiful and I cannot fathom how they were made so long ago with such detail... I've seen churches in Europe with that much detail and I was amazed at the artistry in the detail even in the faces and hands!!
Amazing! But they don't "solve their mystery." It says nothing about how these incredible pieces were made. Nor does it provide links to sites that actually discuss the objects. Photos are great, but article is frustrating.
They look like they were made by the same artist. And judging by the years, if they are correct, it could be 1 person indeed, and he just passed away and no one else could replicate these..But i would have preferred it would have been carvings of animals and forests.
oh, c'mon there are still artis that can curve amazing stuff in for example a pencil tip maxresdefault.jpg 
Okaaayyyy. Um, so where's the information that your headline asserts will follow? You know, the HOW??? Click bait...
So if you can't see it w/o micro CT scanning etc. how could they have created them in the 1500's? Did they have super human eyesight?
According to the article, the details were too fine for the naked eye. Then how did the artists create these? Beautiful photos of beautiful items, but absolute rubbish of an article.
How they could even do these miniature? with what object? Amazing sorry for my eng
Tools to do fine work have been around for a very long time (magnifying lenses, fine metal tools). It's easy to forget that tools have been around a very long time, or to assume that such tools are only a modern creation.
Load More Replies...
If the human eye is unable to analyze details so small, how did humans create these works of art? Maybe humans didn't. Look to the stars.
Rubbish article , and it could have been really nice one with topic like this.
Either aliens made them or the elite did with modern tech and wants us to believe more fkn bs. The end
Either aliens made them or the elite did with modern tech. They couldn't make those 1,000 years.
I never heard of this stuff before. It takes a unique kind of talent to make things like these, but I, always the cynic, see these in a more Zen-like way; I ask myself, "What good is any of it?" Surely, back in those days, widespread poverty cried out for talent to make things which were useful to disadvantaged people. Why waste talent on things like this?
If you have to apologize for being a cynic, you're not a true cynic.
Load More Replies... The miniatures are amazing, however the whole article is rubbish. Especially the grammar and the lack of x-ray pictures. All we see is photos of 'miniatures' but without anything added for scale [a banana would have been fine].
I agree on all counts but especially the x-rays! I mean they're interesting and all but I'd not have bothered if I'd know there wasn't going to be any investigation shows.
Load More Replies... If this is truth: "The human eye isn’t able to analyze details this tiny" and is this is truth: "They found joints in the inner layers so tiny that only a microscope or an X-ray can detect them" - how then was it possible that people 500 years ago looking with nothing than their own eyes could carve them? And what the heck is the size of a grass seed? With perfectly fine length measures available that everyone could understand ... why would you use "the size of a grass seed" as comparison?
They are very beautiful. Add to the list of things we still do not understand. I'm amazed with the comments of some people. Instead of focusing on the Art, some are focused on the writing and how they could have done a better job. Thank's Bored Panda for exposing me to the wonderful art. I'm intelligent enough to follow up with research on my own.
The Youtube video gives you more details: https://youtu.be/ytTcrjKMzcc
This is indeed and truly, a "monumental" work of art for something so "microscopic", so precise! Practically, no room for error! Amazing!
You are not supposed to be a religious person to admire pure art
Load More Replies... Agree with various commenters - an explanation/further details would have been nice! Have found this for anyone who's interested: http://edition.cnn.com/2016/12/09/arts/mystery-of-the-boxwood-miniatures/
Absolutely Amazing in the size and scope of engineering that goes into just one of these carvings, We are loosing technique's and tremendous style in almost everything that is actually man made, just look at the old world buildings, we don't have craftsmen that can begin to build anything other than a plane box! Let's face it, a box is a box, but the adornment on the outside speaks tomes about the craftsmen that created these ancient works of art!
Field Trip: https://www.ago.net/small-wonders-gothic-boxwood-miniatures and http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/09/arts/mystery-of-the-boxwood-miniatures/
How bored are you? http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/09/arts/mystery-of-the-boxwood-miniatures/ and https://www.ago.net/small-wonders-gothic-boxwood-miniatures
Omg,beautiful,to beautiful for words.Where are they being stored?I would give anything to own one.As if.
Yeah, the article is terrible. Bored Panda has turned into a click-baitey advertising machine. Too bad.
Too many adds.....it's like watching a re-run on a tv show. And I haven't watched tv in years. Bored Panda? I've been bored w the world too long.
The website devoted to the exhibition of these objects at the Art Gallery of Ontario offers much more details about their creation... http://boxwood.ago.ca/
I would love to see the X-rays of these... too bad this article falls short
These are beautiful and I cannot fathom how they were made so long ago with such detail... I've seen churches in Europe with that much detail and I was amazed at the artistry in the detail even in the faces and hands!!
Amazing! But they don't "solve their mystery." It says nothing about how these incredible pieces were made. Nor does it provide links to sites that actually discuss the objects. Photos are great, but article is frustrating.
They look like they were made by the same artist. And judging by the years, if they are correct, it could be 1 person indeed, and he just passed away and no one else could replicate these..But i would have preferred it would have been carvings of animals and forests.
oh, c'mon there are still artis that can curve amazing stuff in for example a pencil tip maxresdefault.jpg
Okaaayyyy. Um, so where's the information that your headline asserts will follow? You know, the HOW??? Click bait...
So if you can't see it w/o micro CT scanning etc. how could they have created them in the 1500's? Did they have super human eyesight?
According to the article, the details were too fine for the naked eye. Then how did the artists create these? Beautiful photos of beautiful items, but absolute rubbish of an article.
How they could even do these miniature? with what object? Amazing sorry for my eng
Tools to do fine work have been around for a very long time (magnifying lenses, fine metal tools). It's easy to forget that tools have been around a very long time, or to assume that such tools are only a modern creation.
Load More Replies... If the human eye is unable to analyze details so small, how did humans create these works of art? Maybe humans didn't. Look to the stars.
Rubbish article , and it could have been really nice one with topic like this.
Either aliens made them or the elite did with modern tech and wants us to believe more fkn bs. The end
Either aliens made them or the elite did with modern tech. They couldn't make those 1,000 years.
I never heard of this stuff before. It takes a unique kind of talent to make things like these, but I, always the cynic, see these in a more Zen-like way; I ask myself, "What good is any of it?" Surely, back in those days, widespread poverty cried out for talent to make things which were useful to disadvantaged people. Why waste talent on things like this?
If you have to apologize for being a cynic, you're not a true cynic.
Load More Replies...
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