Probably Antwerp circa 1520/1530
Three reliefs from a Crucifixion scene, probably Antwerp, circa 1520/1530
Wooden reliefs carved from a single block, the backs flattened. With partially overpainted uniform older polychromy. These three high relief depictions are probably fragments of a larger crucifixion scene which would have formed the central panel of an altarpiece. The figures stand in a rocky landscape bordered to the upper section by the outline of the city of Jerusalem. In the two large outer sections, prophets and a praying woman gesture towards the missing middle section which would originally have contained a depiction of the crucifixion of Christ. The gestures of the soldiers indicate that the smaller relief would have been placed to the left of the cross. The rectangular hollow in the lower edge of the relief corresponds to the characteristic stepped composition of Antwerp altars in the first half of the 16th century in which the central panel is raised above those of the wings by reliefs below it.
Four of the hands and the object held in the left hand of the man on the outer right. Wear with minor losses. 112 x 25 x 7, 64 x 25 x 7 and 112 x 25 x 7 cm.
Provenance
Private ownership, Westphalia.
Literature
For the Antwerp altars of the early 16th century cf. exhib. cat.: Antwerpse retabels 15de-16de eeuw, ed. by Hans Nieuwdorp et. al., Antwerpen 1993 (Ausstellung des Museum voor Religieuze Kunst Antwerpen), p. 30-93, cat. no. 2-12, illus.