Beautiful Early 17th Century Portable Altar

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Beautiful Early 17th Century Portable Altar

About the Item

Beautiful portable altar. Rome. Early 17th century. Ebony wood, marble, alabaster, hard stones and silver. 73 cm. (high)x 56.5 (width) x 11.5 cm (deep). Alabaster reliefs: - The principal scene represents The Annunciation (measures: 31,5 x 15 cm). - On the top, The Coronation of the Virgin.(measures: 5 x 13.5), - At the bottom, The Flight to Egypt (measures: 5 x 13,5 cm). As a small altarpiece, this portable altar has a spacious basement, which shows in its center an alabaster relief representing the scene of The Flight to Egypt, flanked by three staggered rectangular agate plaques on each side. The central street is occupied by another vertical relief, also in alabaster, which represents the subject of The Annunciation. This main scene shows an interesting sculptural technique which represents extraordinarily the perspective of the room in different relief levels. This plaque is flanked by two Tuscan columns in lapis lazuli, which bases present two saints in silver: Saint Judas Thaddeus and Saint Philip, respectively, both with two hard stones plaques in their side. In each lateral street an empty niche with has a red jasper plaque up and down. The extremist sides are covered by a white marble pilaster, also in a Tuscan style. The altar’s main body is finished on the top with a beautiful frieze made in square plaques of different hard stones. and rectangles of hard stones. Trere’s a similar decoration in the cornice and in the curved pediment, whose interior is decorated with precious stones, standing out an oval mirror in the center. The piece is crown by a staggered attic whose two steps are soften by a beautiful carved ebony volute. In the center, the relief of The Coronation of the Virgin by God Father made in alabaster. In this wonderful little altar, it’s evident the influence by the Mannerism: moldings, cornices, pilasters. Also, the figures present a long canon and a sinuous profile. However, the volutes indicate the arriving of a new artistic style, the Barroc. So, we can claim that this beautiful piece’s dated between the latest Mannerism and the early Barroc. Because of the many kinds of materials, it’s clear that different artists and makers worked together to make this wonderful piece: an architect for the design, a cabinetmaker for the carved woods, a goldsmith for the silver, a sculptor for the alabaster reliefs and, of course, a lapidary master for the hard stones. It’s known that these kind of architectural structures with rich hard stones ornamentation were made from the 16th century in Italian cities like Rome, Florence and Naples. The peculiar combination of the elements and, particularly, the combination of sculptural reliefs plaques with uncut hard stones locates the piece in Rome because in the other cities they preferred the painted scenes. There are a few pieces like this one which have survived to our age. Their production was very limited because they were conceived as a high luxury items. Among the ones preserved in Europe, they should be pointed: the example of Victoria and Albert Museum (London) which has also the scene of The Flight to Egypt; the one preserved in the Palazzo Pallavicini (Rome) and another with the sculpted and non-painted scene which is preserved in the Galleria Borghese (also in Rome) made around 1625 by Guglielmo della Porta (GONZALEZ-PALACIOS Alvar, Arredi e ornamenti alla corte di Roma 1560-1795. Milano, 2004, pp. 62, 63 and 65, respectively). In any case, the piece presented is an extraordinary example, without parallel in the nowadays private collecting, which stands out because of the riches of its materials, the harmony of its lines and the elegant combination of all its elements. Bibliography: Martinelli, V., Scultura italiana dal manierismo al Rococó, Milano, 1968. Montagu, J., Roman Baroque Sculpture. The industry of art. London / New Haven, 1989. Expertise by: Dr. Francisco Javier Montalvo Martin. Art History Professor at Alcalá de Henares University.

Dimensions:
Height: 28.75 in (73 cm)Width: 22.25 in (56.5 cm)Depth: 4.53 in (11.5 cm)
Style:
Mannerist (Of the Period)
Place of Origin:
Italy
Period:
Early 17th Century
Date of Manufacture:
Early 17th Century
Condition:
Seller Location:
Madrid, ES
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU104441897652