Genre with Crystal Ball. A crystal ball is a crystal or glass ball commonly used in fortune-telling.
In art, a crystal ball is often depicted with a fortune teller or witch gazing into it, symbolizing the search for knowledge of the future or the unseen. Crystal balls can symbolize clarity, truth, and introspection.
They may be placed alongside other objects to create a sense of balance or to invite contemplation about the nature of perception and reality. Used since Antiquity, crystal balls have had a broad reputation with witchcraft, including modern times with charlatan acts and amusements at circus venues, festivals, etc.
By the fifth century AD, scrying using crystal balls was widespread within the Roman Empire and was condemned by the early Christian Church as heretical. The tomb of Childeric I, a fifth-century king of the Franks, contained a 3.8 cm diameter transparent beryl globe.
The object is similar to other globes that were later found in tombs from the Merovingian period in Gaul and the Saxon period in England. Some of these were complete with a frame suggesting an ornamental object. It has been pointed out that these mounts are identical to those of later globes also believed to be used for magic or divination, indicating that these crystal globes may have been used for crystallomancy. John Dee was a noted British mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and consultant to Queen