Locket

Octagonal case of two beveled stained glass windows, with a frame decorated with cord and rivets, and with another cord in the profile; at the top, fixed ring for suspension. On one side, image of the Virgen del Prado, patron saint of Talavera de la Reina (Toledo): Virgin and Child covered by a rich mantle decorated with scrolls and vegetal forms, longer at the back, allowing us to see details of its interior. Mary is crowned and surrounded by four angels, two musicians and two other angels wearing crowns. Above her head is the dove of the Holy Spirit. The whole is surrounded by a great glory with rays and six heads of angels crowned with a star. The Virgin sits on a crescent moon. All this on a pedestal with the scene of the Betrothal. \The other side is destined to the relics: on a coloured silk fabric a cut paper has been arranged forming five secant circles surrounded by other tangents. The spaces thus arranged contain relics, identified by handwritten legends in red ink. This is a very frequent formal arrangement in reliquaries from the Castilian-Leonese territories. \Ruiz Castillo notes that one of the finest works of the 17th century was the construction of wrought iron frames, embossed and chiselled for miniature portraits. This was, perhaps, the most exquisite work and was carried out almost exclusively by Castilian craftsmen, especially by the master Alonso Martínez.