DEVOTIONAL PLAQUE. IVORY, WOOD. CIRCA LAST THIRD 16TH CENTURY, AFTER JAN SADELER I

Devotional plaque; Last Supper, Christ on the Mount of Olives. Wood, tinted ivory and engraving. Towards the end of the 16th century, following models by Jan Sadeler I (active 1550-1600). Rectangular carved wooden plaque with a ring and a hole on the back, which features two ovals on the front with biblical themes highlighted with dark wood frames decorated with square diamond points above and below and rectangular ones on the sides, and winged angel heads in the corners that these two compositions leave free. On the left, the Last Supper appears at the top, with Christ under a canopy and accompanied by Saint Peter and the rest of the Apostles on both sides; below, Judas receiving the bag of coins; the space is completed by a series of architectural elements, angels, fabrics, plant motifs, scrolls, etc. with a clear classicist influence. On the right, the theme of Christ on the Mount of Olives, with Jesus raising a hand towards the chalice offered to him by an angel and accompanied by two sleeping Apostles, and with two soldiers; below, and through a door, the Arrest of Christ; The composition is completed and organized by a series of bands ending in volutes, architectural and vegetal motifs, etc. with a classicist influence. Both scenes are closely inspired by two engravings from the series “Passio Verbigenae Quae Nostra Redemptio Christi”, published by Jan Sadeler I (active 1550-1600) between 1575 and 1600 and inspired by Marcus Gheeraerts I (Bruges, 1516/21-London, c.1590). Engravings from this series are held in many prominent museums around the world (British Museum in London, Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, etc.). According to experts, around 1580, the artist Marcus Gheeraerts designed this series of the Passion of Christ, framed, highlighted, hierarchized and structured thanks to an elaborate and delicate system of grotesques and other classicist elements that he applies to the iconographic themes it presents. At the time of the creation of prints, and later during the Baroque, the use of engraved (or carved) ivory or bone plaques was common on furniture, lecterns, altars for personal devotion, devotional plaques, etc. Compare, for example, Flemish school desks, Neapolitan school desks, etc. such as the one dated c. 1600 in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (workshop of Iacobus Fiamenco, Flemish; active Naples, Italy, 1594–1602; with scenes based on engravings by Dirk Volkertsz; Coornhert, Netherlandish, 1522–1590; after designs by Maarten van Heemskerck (active Haarlem and Rome, 1498–1574)). Also worth mentioning are pieces such as the reliquary altarpiece of the Brotherhood of the Blood of Christ in the Church of Santa Isabel de Portugal (San Cayetano) in Zaragoza, which presents religious scenes based on engravings by Antonius Wieris (1555/9-1604).

· Size: 12x1,5x13 cms.