Flämisch (Matthieu van Beveren-Umkreis) Lot n° 30

Flemish (Matthieu van Beveren circle) (), Corpus Christi Ivory, full-round carving. (Around 1650/1670). Height: 54.5 cm. Width: ca. 9 cm. Depth: ca. 6 cm. Mounted on a velvet covered framed wooden panel. With expert opinion on age determination by Dr. Verena Dirnberger, Wolfratshausen, dated 13.3.2023. An EC marketing permit for the EU domestic market from the Lower Nature Conservation Authority, City of Munich, dated 3.4.2023, is available. The high-quality, fully sculptured crucifixus is remarkable as a work of ivory carving simply because of its size of 54.5 cm and material composition: except for the loincloth, it consists of only one elephant tusk, the arms are not attached. The crucified Christ is depicted in the three-nailed type with the arms stretched out high and the knees slightly bent to follow the natural course of the tusk. In this posture, no rearing in pain was possible; the torture had to be visualized solely through body stretching, lowered head, tightly nailed feet, pierced palms and the drawing of the face. The depiction picks up the moment between life and death, the eyes not yet fully closed, the fingers painfully clawed in agony, the side wound not yet inflicted. At the same time, the sculpture is of a sensual beauty in which the traces of suffering seem to fade into the background. Ribs and muscles stand out under the epidermis, the elongated body is carefully modeled and of noble overall form. Beard and main hair are finely streaked, the thin, body-hugging loincloth is artfully folded and looped around the hips without a cord. The type of the intact Christ on the cross, not yet marked by any bleeding side wound, with the arms stretched high, is prefigured in paintings by Peter Paul Rubens (Christ on the cross, 1615, Alte Pinakothek, Munich, inv. no. 339, and Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp, 1610/1611). It is also called a Jansenist crucifix, because according to the doctrine of Jansenism, a particularly widespread doctrine in the 17th and 18th centuries in France and Flanders within the Catholic Church, only a few were chosen to enter bliss. The narrowness between the arms of Christ should express this figuratively. The type and design of the present Corpus Christi with its sensual naturalism of the body are closely influenced by Flemish ideas of form, but the individual forms are not modeled in an exaggerated and arching movement, as shown in the Flemish-influenced crucifixes of Georg Petel, who translated the Christ figures of Peter Paul Rubens into sculpture. Rather, there is a close relationship to a small group of crucifixes attributed to Matthieu van Beveren (including ivory crucifix in the Musée Royal des Beaux-Arts, Antwerp, boxwood crucifix in the Museum Vleeshuis, Antwerp, ivory crucifix in the sacristy of St. Carolus Borromeo, Antwerp, as well as the ivory crucifixes auctioned at Lempertz, A 1182, lot 87 and Sotheby's, London, July 9, 2015, lot 172). Christian Theuerkauff has subjected the former to a stylistic critical examination in his "Notes on the Work of the Antwerp Sculptor Matthieu van Beveren (c. 1630-1690)" in Oud Holland 89, no.1, 1975, pp. 19-62. In the "Addenda to the Small-Scale Sculpture of Matthieu van Beveren of Antwerp" our piece is also listed for comparison. Matthieu van Beveren was one of the leading Flemish sculptors of his time in Antwerp. He received his training in his hometown of Antwerp under Pieter Verbruggen. In 1650 he was admitted to the Guild of St. Luke in Antwerp. He and his workshop are known to have produced monumental figures in stone and wood as well as small-scale figures in bronze, terracotta, wood and ivory. Among his most important works are the ivory sculpture "Cupid on a Lion" in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, and the Pietà in the Musées royaux d'art et d'histoire, Brussels. Uniform patina, light soiling in the area of the undercuts. Corresponding to the structure of the ivory, very fine, darkened hairline cracks and slight yellowing on the back due to the lack of light exposure - actually necessary for the preservation of the denticle. On the right foot of Christ, the big toe has been reattached, the middle three toes are old supplemented. On Christ's right hand, the thumb and three fingers have been reattached, the index finger has been broken off. The loincloth has a missing part on the right side of Christ, i.e. seen from the viewer's left; this part of the cloth has been supplemented old. Otherwise of nice preservation. Literature: Kunst- und Antiquitäten 6/1982, p. 101, with ill. (Urban & Pierigal Kunst- und Antiquitäten-Handels-GmbH); Christian Theuerkauff, "Addenda to the Small-Scale Sculpture of Matthieu