Beautiful antique French Canivet relic I purchased in Provence circa the early 1800s. This is a VERY old Canivet relic Picture with an extreme amount of cutwork. A "canivet" card is art connected to small holy pictures and it was probably born in France, in the 13th century or thereabouts. This craft makes the holy pictures in needlework using a chromo, textiles, and many other materials. The French and Italians are famous for this type of art.
Works of art such as this were left almost exclusively to the hands of monks and nuns in medieval monasteries and convents. They used to craft them to express Christian faith and spiritual exercise, going beyond prayers. Today, it is commonplace, and we might call this a flat mixed-media piece.
This particular piece was originally framed, but the frame is long gone. It was placed behind a mat and glass to hold everything in place and not destroy the original piece. It was then wrapped in paper. It uses chromos, gold leaf embossed paper, cut paper jewels, velvet, beads, flowers, and silk.
This piece is stunning and measures 6.25" x 4.7", including the outer glass. The inner card measures 2.6" x 4.2". I can see no hanger from which this hung so it was most likely at one time framed. This is indeed a rare piece given all the work that went into it. As time passes, these will only get harder and harder to find.
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