A silver plaque with the crucifixion
Rectangular plaque with a narrow moulded frame. Depicting the cross in the centre with a flattering INRI banner and Christ wearing a drapery and the crown of thorns, crucified with three nails. The Virgin Mary can be seen to the left of the cross in profile, Mary Magdalene kneels beside it and Saint John stands facing forward on the right. Embedded in a landscape backdrop with a repoussoir tree on the left and architecture and ruins on the right. H 17.4, W 11.9 cm, weight 127 g.
Unmarked, attributed to Southern Germany, 17th century.
This composition of Crucifixion scene accompanied by figures of Mary, Saint John and Mary Magdalene has existed in the form presented here since the Renaissance. One of the earliest examples of this iconography is a panel painting by Masaccio (1401 - 1428) from the Galleria Nazionale di Capodimonte in Naples. The Augsburg artist Hans Burgkmair the Elder (1473 - 1531) also used this arrangement of figures in one of his altar paintings (Pinakothek Munich, inv. no. 5329). One hundred years later, the Antwerp based artist Anthony van Dyck (1599 – 1641) used the same composition in an important work housed today in the Louvre (inv. no. 1766).
Literature
Cf. Weber, Deutsche, niederländische und französische Renaissanceplaketten, Munich 1975, no. 953.