15 Carvings & Sculpture from the Bible! 15 - 19th Century. With Footnote, # 12

The master of the Kefermarkter altar
Madonna on the Crescent Moon with the Christ Child
Crescent Madonna
Height: 140 cm. 
Around 1490/1500.

The slender body is conceived on a carved rock base with foot above the crescent, standing between two angelic figures. A scepter in the right hand, in the left arm-bend the Jesus child, with its head tilted to the right, turns the view to the observer. At the same time, he holds an apple, the right hand with pointed finger pointing upwards. Like the apple is a symbol of the sin, the X-shaped crossed legs were a symbolism for the rule of Christ. The dress of Mary is girdled up and brown, and the wide decorated border draws diagonally across. The mantle carved in a rich bowl and crippled folds, which ends in a curved manner downwards, corresponds compositively to the bending of the crescent.  More Madonna on the Crescent Moon with the Christ Child

Master of the Kefermarkt Altar, (fl. c. 1470—1510), was a painter and sculptor, active in Austria. He takes his name from the high altarpiece of the pilgrimage church of Kefermarkt (Upper Austria). FTthe altarpiece was begun before 1490 and completed in 1497. Its paintwork was almost entirely removed in 1852–5 during the restoration organized by Adalbert Stifter (1805–68). More Master of the Kefermarkt Altar

Pietro Pacilli, Rome, 1720 - 1773 
St. Camillus de Lellis 
Clay Sketch 
Height: 50 cm (19.68 in.) 
Private collection

Saint Camillus de Lellis, M.I., (25 May 1550 – 14 July 1614) was born at Bocchianico, Italy. He fought for the Venetians against the Turks, was addicted to gambling, and by 1574 was penniless in Naples. He became a Capuchin novice, but was unable to be professed because of a diseased leg he contracted while fighting the Turks. He devoted himself to caring for the sick, and became director of St. Giacomo Hospital in Rome. He received permission from his confessor (St. Philip Neri) to be ordained and decided, with two companions, to found his own congregation, the Ministers of the Sick (the Camellians), dedicated to the care of the sick. They ministered to the sick of Holy Ghost Hospital in Rome, enlarged their facilities in 1585, founded a new house in Naples in 1588, and attended the plague-stricken aboard ships in Rome's harbor and in Rome. In 1591, the Congregation was made into an order to serve the sick by Pope Gregory XIV, and in 1591 and 1605, Camillus sent members of his order to minister to wounded troops in Hungary and Croatia, the first field medical unit. Gravely ill for many years, he resigned as superior of the Order in 1607 and died in Rome on July 14, the year after he attended a General Chapter there. 

He was canonized in 1746, was declared patron of the sick, with St. John of God, by Pope Leo XIII, and patron of nurses and nursing groups by Pope Pius XI. More Saint Camillus de Lellis

This "bozzeto" representing the founder of the Camillian order, Camille de Lellis, who died in 1614 and was canonized in 1746, belongs to the group of three models still preserved today, preliminary to the construction of the marble version, carved between 1750 and 1753 by the artist Pietro Pacilli. Prized by the Academy of Saint Luke in 1738, this pupil of Giovanni Battista Maini and Camillo Rusconi responds to several orders in the Roman churches (Basilica San Marco, Church of the Spanish Trinity, etc.) before participating in the realization From the gallery of portraits of founders of the religious Order of the nave of St. Peter's Basilica of the Vatican. With the two other models preserved in the National Museum of Palazzo Venetia and in the sacristy of St. Mary Magdalene in Rome, this terracotta testifies to the long process of creating a sculptured work. More Clay Sketch

Michel Ehrhardt, around 1440/45 - after 1522 Ulm, train.
GNADENSTUHL/ Mercy seat, around 1500 / 1510
Linden wood
The Holy See, Christian art depicting the Trinity 
Height: 79 cm. Width: 54 cm. 
. Private collection

Linden wood, carved. Formerly captured, completely freed from composing, appears in light-brown wood tone. On the back strongly hollowed. The highly quality carved figure group is shown in a strictly ordered triangle composition. The godfather, long-bearded, with a crown over his head, from whose back of the front of the crown two flat ribbons swing sideways to the shoulders, the garment laid in moving folds. Between the knees almost perpendicular to the lean body of Jesus, the legs bent, the lower legs turned to the left. The lentent of Christ on the right side of the body, with cripples on the front. Stretching seat of the throne, on the right with pleated sheath, More GNADENSTUHL/ Mercy seat 

Michel Erhart, also known as Michael Erhart (* around 1440/45; † after 1522 in Ulm) was a well-known sculptor and screen-maker of Late Gothic and worked especially in and around Ulm . He belongs to the Ulm school . His exact biographical data are still unclear.

Erhart's travels led him to visit Konstanz and Strasbourg , but also probably to the Netherlands, no later than 1469 in the free imperial city of Ulm, in which he worked from 1469 to 1,522th

Erhart worked in Ulm first in the workshop Jörg Syrlins on the choral arrangement of the Ulm Cathedral. Afterwards, he was commissioned to create "etlich bild" for the (lost) high altar of the Ulmer Minster. From 1474 he had his own workshop. Later his sons Gregor Erhart and Bernhard Erhart continued his work.

Michel Erhart was artistically influenced by the new, spacious and realistic style of the then famous Dutch sculptor Niclas Gerhaert van Leyden , whose work he had studied in Strasbourg, among others, and in whose Strasbourg workshop he might even have worked. More Michel Erhart

Holy Christophorus, c. around 1600
Lindenwood
Height: 99 cm. 
Schwaben, Bavaria 
.Private collection

The saint in a knee-length girdled mantle. Right hand resting on the hip, the left raised hand holding a crooked stick. The head is occupied by three gilded nimbus beams. The right foot hidden in the water and waves of the base, the left side exposed as on the shore. Lindenwood carved, verso hollowed. More Holy Christophorus

Saint Christopher is venerated as a martyr killed in the reign of the 3rd-century Roman Emperor Decius,) or alternatively under the Roman Emperor Maximinus II Dacian. There appears to be confusion due to the similarity in names "Decius" and "Dacian". However his veneration only appears late in Christian tradition, and did not become widespread in the Western Church until the Late Middle Ages, although churches and monasteries were named after him by the 7th century.

It is disputed whether Christopher existed, and if so whether the name applied to a specific person or was a general title meaning "Christ-bearer" which was applied to several different real or legendary people. He may be the same figure as Saint Menas. His most famous legend, which is mainly known from the West and may draw from Ancient Greek mythology, tells that he carried a child, who was unknown to him, across a river before the child revealed himself as Christ. Therefore, he is the patron saint of travelers. More Saint Christopher


Late Gothic sculpture group
Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, c. around 1500
Wooden carving, polychromy with aged patina
Height: 50 cm. 
Schwaben, Bavaria 
.Private collection

The composition of the group of figures in a strict triangular composition: Mother Anna, seated on a throne, her cheeks protrude laterally from the folds of the garment, a green garnished gown, over her red coat. The head is covered with a white cloth, which covers the forehead and chin, leaving only her face. To her right stands the youthfully depicted Mary, with an open prayer-book in both hands, with long flowing hair and a crown. On the left knee the Jesus child, who raised his right hand, in a blessing gesture,in his left hand on a ball. 

Christ's Baptism at the Jordan, around 1600
carved in hardwood
Height: 100 cm. 
Width: 68 cm. 
Depth: approx. 20 cm. 
Probably South Tyrol

Carved in hardwood, the main figures are fully sculptured with a rather flat carved background. To the right the figure of John the Baptist, clothed only with a robe with fur covering over his shoulder. In the right hand the baptismal cup above the head of the kneeling figure of Jesus. Between the two figures, the arched waves of the Jordan. Jesus kneeling on the left, clothed only with a shroud, bowed head, his hands crossed over his chest. The background shows a rock formation behind the Jesus, on the right a forest  with curved tree trunks and pine cones. On the left, above the rock, two smaller angelic figures holding a cloth. Altogether largely preserved version, dress and lendentuch gilded, setting tuned. More Christ's Baptism at the Jordan


 Lorenz Luidl, (around 1645 Mering - 1719 Landsberg am Lech)
The Calvary
Altar of the Bavarian Baroque
Height: 165 cm. Width: 105 cm. Depth: 45 cm.

The scene of the Calvary with the three crosses. The flat back wall painted with a view of the city of Jerusalem, with a dome building in the center, which points to the temple of Salomonis. In front of it, as on a stage, the lawns and rocky bases, on which the figures are erected, evolve. In the center, the Cross of Christ, Laterally the crosses of the thieves, tied to the wooden beams). The figures hanging on the cross are clothed. The left thief, looking upwards as a sign of his acceptance into the heavens, which Jesus had given him. The opposing deceiver, on the other hand, looks downward, as a sign of his condemnation, which is to be seen above the cross-beam a small, separately carved devil's shape. At the foot of the cross, the kneeling Maria Magdalena, on the right beside mother Mary she's also looking up to her son, while the John Evangelist, standing to the right, leads her soothingly by the hand. To the left of the horse, Holy Longinus, with lance, who inflicted the Christ's side wound. In the background in the relief a full and a half moon in gilding. Special attention is paid to the pedestal. Here, numerous bones and rotten limbs, which have originally been lighter, have been found, including, of course, the skull of Adam, and on the cross-stem the ointment of Mary Magdalene. 

The altar crucifixion group, with a total of nine individual sculptures, is one of the few surviving examples of its kind, as they were usually erected in Church traditions only on Good Friday in side chapels of churches. More on this Calvary.

Lorenz Luidl (around 1645 in Mering , 14 January 1719 in Landsberg am Lech ) was a Bavarian baroque sculptor. Lorenz Luidl was the most important member of a far-flung sculptural cliff in western Upper Bavaria. In 1668 he was accepted as citizen of the town of Landsberg and in the same year he married Maria Miller († 1678). After the death of his first wife he married the baker's daughter Ursula Ludwig in 1678. In 1669 he bought a house in Ledergasse and in 1679 another house in the neighborhood. In 1699, Luidl was appointed to the city's outer council. In 1717 he handed over his workshop and the total assets to the son Johann Luidl. The Luidl workshop in Landsberg was one of the most productive sculptor workshops in the outgoing 17th and beginning 18th century in Bavaria.


Among the characteristic features of the Luidl sculptures are the moving overall appearance of the figures and the mannerist folds of the robes. More Lorenz Luidl 
Florentine sculptor of the 17th / 18th century
Mary Magdalene
Terracotta
Height: approx. 33 cm. Length: 63 cm.
Private collection



Terracotta tile of Mary Magdalene lying on rocks in the worship of the cross. In a horizontal position, to the left, with her hand resting on a rock, the upper body slightly raised, a cross in the right hand, a rosary and a scourge. The rocky terrain rising from the front to the rear, with a tree stump pulling up on the upper edge, covered with herb. More Terracotta tile of Mary Magdalene

Mary Magdalene,  literally translated as Mary the Magdalene or Mary of Magdala, is a figure in Christianity who, according to the Bible, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers. She is said to have witnessed Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection. Within the four Gospels she is named more than most of the apostles. Based on texts of the early Christian era in the third century, it seems that her status as an “apostle" rivals even Peter's.

The Gospel of Luke says seven demons had gone out of her. She is most prominent in the narrative of the crucifixion of Jesus, at which she was present. She was also present two days later when, she was, either alone or as a member of a group of women, the first to testify to the resurrection of Jesus. John 20 and Mark 16:9 specifically name her as the first person to see Jesus after his resurrection.


During the Middle Ages, Mary Magdalene was regarded in Western Christianity as a repentant prostitute or promiscuous woman, claims not found in any of the four canonical gospels. More Mary Magdalene

Flemish school of the eighteenth century 
Madonna and Child 
Terracotta 
Height: 56 cm (22 in.) 
Private collection

This statuette was made for private use, within the framework of private devotion, it represents the Virgin and Child, no longer as a symbol of the triumphant Catholic Church, but as a metaphor for filial love. 

From this scene of a mother leaning and the forehead glued to that of her Child abandoned in a deep sleep emanates a great tenderness. The image of the sleeping Christ, however, corresponds to the prefiguration of his inexorable Passion. More Madonna and Child 

Italian School at the end of the 15th or early 16th century 
Bust of Pieta 
Polychromed terracotta 
h: 28 W: 34 d: 13 cm
Private collection

This polychromed terracotta bust offers a particularly poignant image of the Virgin after the death of Christ. It ' 'Is probably the upper fragment of a representation of the Virgin of a group of the' 'Death of Christ' or of a' Pieta ' The work expresses the feelings of despair and incomprehension with a naturalism that is found mainly in the groups of life size and polychromed terracotta which spread to Northern Italy in the second half of the 15th century. Elaborately staged, they allowed the faithful to identify with the tragic event of the Passion. More Bust of Pieta 

Attributed to Jacques Bergé, Brussels, 1693 - 1756 
The Massacre of the Innocents 
Bas-relief terracotta with squaring 
8.15 x 14.37 in., H: 20,70 w: 36,50 cm 
Private Collection

A student of Nicolas Coustou in Paris, Jacques Bergé traveled to Italy and, returning to Brussels in 1722, becoming a Belgian sculptor of The first half of the sixteenth century. He is particularly renowned for his bas-reliefs with a pictorial and narrative character. The bas-relief of the "Massacre of the Innocents" sketched and put to the tile is to be compared to the "Crucifixion of Saint Peter" Preserved in the Louvre museum which is attributed to him and the "Death of Saphire and Ananie" preserved at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Brussels. They present the same type of construction in large diagonal, several distinct planes and an architecture as drawn in the earth in very low relief enclosing the composition. More Massacre of the Innocents Bas-relief

Jean-Jacques Feuchère, Paris, 1807 - 1852 
Satan, c. 1833
Bronze with dark brown patina 
Height: 35 cm (13,78 in.) 
Private Collection

In the 19th century, the artists of Romanticism took advantage of the biblical, faustian, dantesque or miltonian iconography. Satan. Feuchère fits perfectly into this artistic trend when he shows the Salon of 1834 this "Satan". The figure of the fallen angel is inspired by " The Melancholy "by Dürer. "The elbow in the knee, the chin in his hand, [dreaming] of the poor human lot," The "Satan" of Feuchere adopts the pose of the romantic poet that Carpeaux and Rodin will use for "Ugolin" and ''The Thinker''.  More Satan of Feuchere

Jean-Jacques Feuchère (24 August 1807 – 26 July 1852) was a French sculptor. Son of a chiseler, Feuchère began working for goldsmiths. He was a pupil of Jean-Pierre Cortot and Jules Ramey, professors at the School of Fine Arts of Paris. In 1848, he participated in the competition for the sculpted figure of the French Republic, launched by the provisional government. The jury retained his project and he was commissioned, in 1849 to create The Constitution. It was completed in 1852 and was inaugurated on the Place du Palais-Bourbon in 1854 under the name of La Loi. One of the most famous works of Jean-Jacques Feuchère is his Satan (circa 1833, above) drawing his inspiration from black romanticism. More Jean-Jacques Feuchère

Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse
La Vierge Marie présentant l'enfant Jésus ou Le Messie
The Virgin Mary presenting the child Jesus or the Messiah
Terracotta on wood base
84 cm
Private Collection

Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse (born Albert-Ernest Carrier de Belleuse; 12 June 1824 – 4 June 1887) was a French sculptor. He was one of the founding members of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, and was made an officer of the Legion of Honour. He began his training as a goldsmith's apprentice. He was a student of David d'Angers and briefly studied at the École des Beaux-Arts. His career is distinguished by his versatility and his work outside France: in England between 1850 and 1855, and in Brussels around 1871. His name is perhaps best known because Auguste Rodin worked as his assistant between 1864 and 1870. The two travelled to Brussels in 1871, and by some accounts Rodin assisted Carrier-Belleuse's architectural sculpture for the Brussels Stock Exchange.

Carrier-Belleuse made many terra cotta pieces, the most famous of which may be The Abduction of Hippodameia depicting the Greek mythological scene of a centaur kidnapping Hippodameia on her wedding day. He was also made artistic director at the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres in 1876. More Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse

Madonna with child, Florence XIXth century 
High relief in marble
36 xx 55 cm
Dimensions: 36 xx 55 cm
Private Collection


Demeter H. Chiparus, 1886 - 1947
Saint Therese de Lisieux
Gilded bronze and carved ivory on cream-coloured marble base
Height: 21.5 cm.

Saint Thérèse of Lisieux (French: Sainte-Thérèse de Lisieux), born Marie Françoise-Thérèse Martin (2 January 1873 – 30 September 1897), also known as Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face was a Roman Catholic French Discalced Carmelite nun widely venerated in modern times. She is popularly known as "The Little Flower of Jesus" or simply "The Little Flower".

Thérèse has been a highly influential model of sanctity for Catholics and for others because of the "simplicity and practicality of her approach to the spiritual life". Together with Saint Francis of Assisi, she is one of the most popular saints in the history of the church. Pope Pius X called her "the greatest saint of modern times".

Thérèse felt an early call to religious life, and overcoming various obstacles, in 1888 at the early age of 15, she became a nun and joined two of her elder sisters in the cloistered Carmelite community of Lisieux, Normandy. After nine years as a Carmelite, having fulfilled various offices such as sacristan and assistant to the novice mistress, and having spent her last eighteen months in Carmel in a night of faith, she died at aged 24, following a slow and painful fight against tuberculosis.

Thérèse is well known throughout the world, with the Basilica of Lisieux being the second-largest place of pilgrimage in France after Lourdes. More Saint Thérèse of Lisieux 

Demétre Haralamb Chiparus (16 September 1886 – 22 January 1947) was a Romanian Art Deco era sculptor who lived and worked in Paris, France. He was one of the most important sculptors of the Art Deco era. Also known as Dumitru Chipăruş, he was born in Dorohoi, Romania. In 1909 he went to Italy, where he attended the classes of Italian sculptor Raffaello Romanelli. In 1912 he traveled to Paris to attend the Ecole des Beaux Arts to pursue his art at the classes of Antonin Mercie and Jean Boucher.  Chiparus died in 1947, suffering a stroke on returning from studying animals at the zoo in Vincennes. He was buried in Bagneux Cemetery, just south of Paris. More Demétre Haralamb Chiparus 




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