Tongue of Saint John of Nepomuk.

[Miniature painting] / [Relics]. Lingua S. Joannes Nep. S.l.: s.n., s.a. [18th century]. [15.5 x 10.4 cm], [1] f. miniature on laid paper. Some mostly marginal staining, remnants of mounting on verso, colors still fresh.
 
 
An 18th-century devotional miniature depicting one of the more unusual relics of Christendom: the tongue of the Bohemian saint John of Nepomuk (c. 1345-93). The tongue is now preserved at the Saint’s pilgrimage church at Zelená hora, near Žďár nad Sázavou (Czech Republic).
 
John of Nepomuk was tortured, killed, and thrown from the Charles Bridge into the Vltava River at the order of King Wenceslaus IV. The murder was political, but a legend later grew that the King executed John because the priest had heard the Queen’s confession and would not reveal her secrets.
 
In 1719 John’s tomb was opened, and his tongue was found intact, which reinforced his status as a martyr of the Seal of the Confessional and a patron against calumnies. He was beatified in 1721, canonized in 1729, and his pilgrimage church was built between 1720 and 1729.
 
“Nepomuk Tongue” engravings and other tongue-related devotional items soon proliferated, and so our miniature likely dates from the 1720s or the following decades. The rather baroque design of the painted border is consistent with work of the middle of the century. 
 
 
*R. Hocker & W. Telesko, Johannes von Nepomuk: Kult - Künste – Kommunikation.