Vienna Devil in Glass: 400-Year-Old Artifact and Its Evolving Description. The artifact is housed in Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum, dated to early 1600s It measures 6.6 centimeters tall, cast in black lead and sealed in glass Inventory number: Kunstkammer 6211
A small black figure sealed in glass sits in Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum. Initially cataloged in 1659 as art depicting a devil, by 1720 the Imperial Treasury described it as a 'spiritus familiaris' driven from a possessed person. The object's description shifted from artwork to supernatural prisoner as enlightenment attitudes changed.
Key Facts
- The artifact is housed in Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum, dated to early 1600s
- It measures 6.6 centimeters tall, cast in black lead and sealed in glass
- Inventory number: Kunstkammer 6211
- 1659 inventory of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm cataloged it simply as 'a small square glass containing a black little man in the shape of a devil' - as art
- 1720 Austrian Imperial Treasury inventory claimed it was a 'spiritus familiaris' driven out of a possessed person and banished into the glass
- By the age of enlightenment, the artifact's description shifted from art to 'supernatural prisoner'
- The object represents a historical practice of containing demons in glass objects, condemned by Popes since 1326
Related site: Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Antikensammlung und Münzkabinett — view location, images, and history on the Ancient Nerds map.
Source: The "Impossible" Artifact: A 400-Year-Old Devil Trapped in Glass by Dark5 Ancient Mysteries