Object Description
378 CRUCIFIXION
Christ on the cross, which stands above a skull and bones, is mourned by Mary at left with outstretched hands and John on the right with hands clasped. Both have halos and look at each other. Two angels hover under Christ's arms, catching his blood in goblets. At the top of the cross, an inscription tablet.
Bronze, aftercast, molded frame, no x 83 mm. Hole at top.
Bange and Middeldorf view this as a German work from the middle of the sixteenth century. Middeldorf rejects the thesis of Morazzoni, who calls it "maniera del Sansovino." Braun has attributed an altar, formerly in Vienna, Auspitz Collection, which shows this Mary transformed to Hilaria with a palm branch in the right wing, to the so-called Augsburg plaquette workshop. Braun dates the works from this shop-certainly too early-to the middle of the sixteenth century. The use of this relief on the Liber Aureus from Pfafers of 1590 (St. Gallen, Staatsarchiv Pfaferser Archiv; D. F. Rittmeyer, "Der Kirchenschatz des einstigen Klosters Pfafers und die Kirchenschatze in Sarganserland," 85. Neujahrsblatt, Historischer Verein St. Gallen, 1945, p. 18, pl. 2, fig. 5) gives a "terminus ante quem"; that is, the group must date from the last quarter of the sixteenth century. The plaquette was attached either in rectangular or rounded form to numerous bells, which are dated from 1592 to 1779 (S. Thurm, Deutscher Glockenalas, Wuerttemberg und Hohenzollern, Berlin/Muenchen 1959, no. 633b, fig. 77a; Bayerisch-Schwaben 1967, no. 408, fig. 127, no. 754; 294; 948 and 972a, fig. 177; Mittelfranken 1973, no. 672).
Other specimens: (lead) Nuremberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum; Stuttgart, Wuerttembergisches Landesmuseum (partly rounded off at top); (bronze) Berlin, Staatliche Museen; London, Victoria and Albert Museum; Munich, Bayerisches Nationalmuseum; Madrid, Lazaro Collection. In addition, the flanking figures also exist independently,
Bibl.: Molinier, no. 694; Braun, E. W., "Aus der Slg deutscher Renaissanceplaketten in BNM," AMP 2 (1920/21), p. 83 f.; Bange, D.M., p. 104, no. 1475, pl. 19; La Coll. Lazaro de Madrid 2, Madrid 1927, p. 276, no. 782; Imbert, no. 27, pl. 5, 5; Middeldorf-Imbert, p. 152; Weber, no. 381, 1. Auction catalogs: Heinrici, no. 170, pl. 16; Cahn, Frankfurt/M., 2 March 1926, no. 1728, pl. 27.
