Southern Netherlandish, probably Antwerp, circa 1600

Portuguese private collection.

This graceful relief is a blend of Northern and Italian influences, between the last years of Mannerism and the beginnings of the Baroque period. The movement of the seated Virgin's legs echoes Italian Renaissance compositions such as Donatello's Virgin of the Clouds, circa 1425–35 (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 17.1470), while Saint Joseph is more in keeping with the Flemish culture. The contrast between the close-up composition on the Holy Family group and the Mannerist reminiscences of the contorted bodies of the Infant Jesus and Saint Joseph place the execution of this relief around 1600, in an artistic environment aware of Italian Renaissance models and nourished by a vernacular tradition.

The sculpture from the Spanish Netherlands, and Antwerp in particular, which returned to prosperity in the last quarter of the 16th century after the wars of religion, offer interesting comparisons to the present relief. The particular anatomy of the Infant Jesus, more muscular than chubby, is reminiscent of the Mannerist style of Jan Gossaert or the elegant manner of Conrad Meit. The Nole family, which occupied a prominent place in Antwerp sculpture at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, and more particularly Robert de Nole (circa 1570 - 1636), offers interesting parallels with the present relief. Of particular note are the alabaster reliefs of the Altarpiece of Saint Anne, commissioned in 1610 by Charles III de Cröy for the Celestine convent in Heverlee (M Leuven, Louvain, inv. C/122-135). The perfectly oval face of the Virgin in the present relief, and her slightly open mouth with pronounced commissions are comparable to those in the Annunciation from the Heverlee altarpiece (inv. C/124). Similarly, the treatment of the gnarled tree trunk in the background of the present relief is comparable to that which frames the left side of the Flight into Egypt from the same altarpiece (inv. C/127).

RELATED LITERATURE

M. Debaene (dir.), Alabaster sculpture in Europe, 1300 - 1650, exh. cat., M. Leuven, Louvain, 2022, pp. 244-247 ;

A. Lipińska, Moving Sculpture. Southern Netherlandish Alabasters from the 16th to 17th Centuries in Central and Northern Europe, Leyden-Boston, 2015.