The Crucifixion, from a series of reliefs with stories from the Life and Passion of Jesus Christ
Malines (Mechelen) Alabaster School (fl.16th-17th century)
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
circa 1600
Materials
Alabaster
Measurements
225 x 200 mm
Place of origin
Malines (Mechelen)
Order this imageCollection
Mount Stewart, County Down
NT 1655922.7
Summary
Sculpture, alabaster; the Crucifixion; Mecheln (Malines); c. 1600. A small alabaster relief from a group of seven (NT 1655922) depicting scenes from the life and Passion of Jesus Christ, made in the southern Netherlands in Mechelen (Malines). The scene depicted here shows the Crucifixion of Christ. The seven reliefs were kept, arranged in the form of a cross and together with other small religious sculptures in the bedroom of Edith, Marchioness of Londonderry.
Full description
A small alabaster panel depicting the Crucifixion, from the story of Christ’s Passion. Christ is upon the Cross in the centre, whilst Mary Magdalen clasps its foot in grief, a jar of ointment next to her. At left is the Virgin Mary, her hands clasped and at right Saint John, holding a book in one hand, whilst he points towards Christ with the other. In the background are buildings, evoking Jerusalem. A stepped ledge at bottom. The relief is unpainted but has been extensively embellished with gilding, especially the background and the garments. Some restoration to the gilding especially the ledge and the Cross. Mounted in its original frame, black-painted, with an inner frieze of stamped and gilded gesso work with arabesque decoration. The relief has been shattered and repaired, cracks especially evident: in lower part of Virgin’s body; upper left passing above her head and downwards to left of Christ and the Magdalen; upper rigjht, above Saint John’s head. The relief is one of a group of seven reliefs at Mount Stewart, probably acquired by Edith, 7th Marchioness of Londonderry and displayed in her bedroom, ‘Genoa’, arranged upon a velvet panel in the form of a cross. The 1950 inventory of Mount Stewart records just six reliefs, so it is possible that the seventh was acquired some time in the 1950s. The alabaster reliefs are part of a small collection of devotional objects kept in a corner of Genoa. In their arrangement by Lady Londonderry, the alabaster panels do not follow any liturgical order, but they all illustrate scenes from the Life and Passion of Christ: The Holy Family, with Saint Anne (NT 1655922.3) Agony in the Garden (NT 1666922.5) Betrayal of Christ (NT 1655922.4) Crowning with Thorns (NT 1655922.2) Crucifixion (NT 1655922.7) Entombment (NT 1655922.6) Pentecost (NT 1655922.1) The Mount Stewart reliefs are products of a prolific industry in alabaster carving in the southern Netherlands, that had its main centre in the city of Mechelen (Malines), and was active from c. 1550-1630. Alabaster is a form of gypsum. It has long been popular as a material for sculpture, for its relative softness and ease of carving, its attractive translucency and whiteness and its cheapness compared to marble. In England, from the twelfth through to the sixteenth centuries, alabaster carvings were produced in vast numbers by workshops based mainly in the English Midlands. The most common products of the English workshops were figurative panels, usually religious in subject matter, which formed the basis of large multi-panel altarpieces or else were used in smaller single-panel devotional altars. English alabasters were exported widely throughout Europe before the Protestant Reformation, which in England brought a sudden end to this trade. The gap in the market this created from around 1540 was quickly compensated for by the development of an important school of alabaster sculpture in the Southern Netherlands, especially in the towns of Mechelen (Malines) and Antwerp. The Mechelen alabaster workshops, which operated from around 1550 to 1630, became much more important later in the sixteenth century, as Antwerp went through severe economic crises. As well as altarpieces, these workshops specialised in making large numbers of small reliefs, often in series and generally smaller than the English alabasters, but replicating many of their subjects, albeit in a more modern late Renaissance style. The reliefs were made in enormous numbers by the artisans, who were known as ‘cleynstekers’ (carvers of small works) or ‘albastwerkers’ (alabaster workers). Sometimes the small panels were incorporated into larger altarpieces, such as the Entombment, set into the upper section of an altarpiece from c. 1550-60 in the Victoria & Albert Museum (Inv. 587-1883; Williamson 2002, pp. 150-51, cat. 50). But they were much more commonly individually framed, with the the frames incorporating decorative friezes stamped and gilded gesso. The reliefs themselves were invariably also partly gilded, so when they were freshly made they must have been spectacular in appearance, even though they were rather mass-made products, mostly modest in quality. Prints must have provided the sources for many of the images, although there is also some evidence that designs were produced in some of the Mechelen workshops. The seven Mechelen reliefs at Mount Stewart have been gathered from different sources and are certainly the products of more than one workshop. Mechelen alabasters quite often bear workshop marks which have allowed a number of these reliefs to be identified as the products of named workshops. No marks are however visible on any of the Mount Stewart reliefs. To gather from the number of examples that survive (Bès de Berc 2003, pp. 147-48), the Crucifixion was among the commonest of subjects made by the Mechelen carvers, whilst it was also often chosen as the subject for the larger central panels in altarpieces. The smaller depictions usually include the buildings of Jerusalem in the background; a quite similar panel is in the Musées Royaux d’art et d’histoire in Brussels (Inv. 9173; Jansen 1964, p. 139, Afb. 34), and another, dated 1586, in the Discalced Monastery in Czerna, to which it was bequeathed in 1644 (Kriegseisen and Lipinska 2011, no. !.28). Jeremy Warren August 2022
Provenance
Probably acquired by Edith, Marchioness of Londonderry (1878-1959); by descent to Lady Mairi Bury (1921-2009); accepted by HM Government in lieu of Inheritance Tax and allocated to the National Trust, 2013.
Makers and roles
Malines (Mechelen) Alabaster School (fl.16th-17th century), sculptor
References
Mount Stewart 1950: Inventory and Valuation of the Contents of Mount Stewart, Newtownards, County Down, the property of the Marchioness Dowager of Londonderry, D.B.E. Prepared for the purpose of insurance by H. Clifford-Smith, M.A. F.S.A. 1950, p. 43. Jansen 1964: Ad Jansen, ‘Mechelse Albasten‘, Handelingen van de Koninklijke Kring voor Oudheidkunde, Letteren en Kunst van Mechelen, 68 (1964), pp. 111-191. Derveaux-van Ussel 1967: Ghislaine Derveaux-van Ussel, ed., Mechelner Alabaster, exh. cat., Städtsiches Museum, Trier 1967 Derveaux-van Ussel 1967a: Ghislaine Derveaux-van Ussel, Exposition de Sculptures anglaises et malinoises d’Albâtre, exh. cat., Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels 1967. Williamson 2002 : Paul Williamson, Netherlandish Sculpture 1450-1550. London 2002 Bès de Berc 2003: Guy Bès de Berc, Sculptures d’albâtre de Malines. Les reliefs de dévotion, fin XVIème début XVIIème siècle, Saint Armel 2003. Kriegseisen and Lipinska 2011 : Jacek Kriegseisen and Aleksandra Lipińska, Materia światła i ciała/Matter of light and flesh. Alabaster in the Netherlandish sculpture of the 16th and 17th centuries, exh. cat. National Museum in Gdańsk, Gdańsk 2011 Lipinska 2015 : Aleksandra Lipińska, Moving Sculptures. Southern Netherlandish Alabasters from the 16th to 17th centuries in Central and Northern Europe, Leiden 2015.