Estimate

25.000 - 35.000

Session 1

20 July 2022

Hammer Price

Description

Marble sculpture
Fleur-de-lis cross finials and Pieta to reverse
Obverse with kneeling Penitent Saint Jerome
Portugal, probably Évora (1520-25)

84x34x26 cm

Category

Objects

Additional Information

Note: This work of art is inventoried by the Portuguese government.

A MANUELINE CROSS TERMINAL

A sculptural group formed by a crucifix and a circular capital, corresponding to the upper section of a display cross made in the early 16th century, in the contemporary Manueline style. The two elements fit into each other by a pair of iron pegs replacing, or overlapping, its original fittings. In the capital’s underside it is also possible to identify the circular socket that connected to an original column, a detail that may confirm that the above-mentioned iron pegs correspond to a later intervention. At the time of its production these public display crosses were relatively common features close to churches and in towns and villages grounds and main squares, as well as close to crossroads outside inhabited areas. Often protected by plain canopies of variable dimensions, they rested on stepped platforms of two or three steps and were particularly revered during lent for devotional group practices of genuflection and circumvolution, accompanied by the murmuring of the litanies characteristic of that liturgical cycle. Considering its irreproachable conservation, which contrasts with that of other similar crosses such as the “Cruz de Portugal” in Silves, also dated from the Manueline period albeit carved in limestone, we reckon that this example was not particularly exposed to the elements or to human intervention, being possibly protected in a large churchyard. Featuring large Fleur-de-Lis terminals, the cross depicts the Penitent Saint Jerome at the foot of the Crucifix, on the obverse, and the Pieta, the Lamentation of the Virgin with the dead Christ on Her lap, on the reverse. Its design follows the model of scalloped and pierced processional crosses that were popular in the first third of the 16th century, normally made in brass, a metal easy to model and to pierce, with identical terminations. Alentejo marble not being a material suitable for such type of interlaced and filigree like decorative work, which would certainly create a startling light and shade effect but would have weakened irretrievably the object, the artist sculptor chose to suggest a cross of such type by engraving along its arms a fishbone pattern punctuated by beads grouped in crosses and rosettes, or simply suggested in superficially engraved pods. This was the means adopted to simulate in milky coloured marble the gilt brass prototype of such crosses. This link is clearer on the reverse than on the obverse as on the former face the body of the cross is fully exposed without the figure of Christ. Also relevant is the fact that brass processional crosses feature identical iconography to the cross herewith described, having the Crucifix on one face and the Pieta on the other. Under careful observation, the cross’s obverse features one representation within another. In fact, the Body of Christ nailed to the cross, corresponds to a large crucifix sustained by a small stem that is held in Saint Jerome right hand. What is viewed is not the highlighted and enlarged figure of Christ on The Cross, as in a Calvary scene, but rather an episode in the life of the Saint, specifically the Penitent Saint Jerome kneeling by an enormous crucifix. Therefore, what was represented here was a moment in Saint Jerome’s long penance in the desert, always taking the figure of Christ on The Cross as his role model. Moreover, this Saint, one of the Four Doctors of the Latin Church, is pictured as a simple monk or anchorite, occupying the right-hand side of the composition. The sculptor has intentionally intensified the Saint’s tonsure and his long beard, attiring him in a plain habit with no distinctive features. Excepting the lion resting at His feet, there are none of the other attributes associated to him, namely the cardinal’s cap, the skull associated to ephemeral life and the stone used to beat his own chest and exorcise temptations during the long vigils in the Syrian wilderness. This allusion to the desert is featured on the left side of the composition, where the master sculptor used the reverse of the Virgin’s cloak, built in a pyramid, to carve a series of pleats that, seen from this side, simulate rocky escarpments deprived of vegetation. In this ingenious manner the sculptor manages to create the adequate desertic setting to frame the selfless penance of Saint Jerome, fed by long fasts and mortifications. As referred above, on the Cross’s reverse is featured the Pieta, the tearful Virgin holding Her Son’s Dead body on Her lap. As is typical of this Biblical scene, organized in a triangular composition with its apex in the Virgin’s Head, there is a difference in the two characters dimensions, the Virgin portrayed in a larger size than her Son. The way the Christ nests in the Virgin’s lap accentuates the sense of His body being embraced by the Virgin’s cloak, in a clearly funereal shroud manner. Notwithstanding the composition quality it is evident that the disjointed depiction of Christ’s Feet, facing in opposite directions, suggests an artist of limited resources, as is confirmed using the repetitive ornamental models seen along the cross’s arms as well as by the disproportionate dimensions of the Fleur-de-Lis terminals. This apparent difficulty vanishes once we rest our sight on the capital, in which the artist carved a wavy phyto-zoomorphic frieze of bulging and thriving shapes. This frieze, filling the whole peripheral surface of the piece, is worked within the characteristic ruggedness of Manueline art before it gave in to the order and clarity of “roman” ornamentation. The intertwining of foliage and rough trunks around the whole capital’s surface, which includes a wingless dragon, end up creating a feeling of fluidity and continuous movement as we move around the object, being impossible to find its beginning or end. The evident easiness of the artist in working this section, comparatively to the cross that surmounts it, suggests a master artist with vast experience in Manueline architectural sculpture but less acquainted with the construction of historiated themes and the composition of human figure. It would be possible to consider that these differences would correspond to distinct authorships for the capital and the cross, a possibility reinforced by some differences in the colour and markings of both elements as well as for the chamfer cut on the abacus, on the Pieta’s side, that has reduced the empty space between the capital’s surface and the beginning of the cross. As a matter of fact, and despite these differences, it seems unlikely to us that we are facing two randomly joined elements. Amongst other factors there is evident affinity regarding the carving of some details, namely the horizontal plump ‘S’ present in the fleur-de-lis’ terminals and in the capital’s foliage motifs, which could be equally used to carve the shape of a human ear. Beyond the carving formal characteristics, it is also noticeable the typological origin of this capital within the Manueline art, namely as it represents a circular capital of compressed cylindrical basket surmounted by a polygonal abacus of six concave sides. The presence of Saint Jerome is particularly interesting as it suggests that the piece was associated to a Hieronymite monastery. The raw material, the excellent quality marble from the Borba-Estremoz region, reinforces an Alentejo origin even if the two blocks could have been taken to distant areas, such as Extremadura, for carving. Stylistically a Manueline period piece, very likely carved in the early 1520s at a time when the Hieronymite Order owned, south of the river Tagus, the important monastery of the Madonna of Espinheiro just outside the city of Évora, a religious House founded in 1547 to which is associated the studio of the renowned Luso-Flemish painter Father Carlos, who in 1517 professed in that monastery. Taking into account some sculptural affinities with Manueline interventions in Évora, namely in the Convent of Lóios Chapter Room portal, in the Portico of Palace Cordovil and, above all, in the Convent of Espinheiro itself, namely the marble capitals in the cloister upper galleries, we would say that the cross was commissioned for that convent and produced simultaneously to the closing of the cloister galleries in the early 1520s, under the supervision of brother’s João Álvares and Álvaro Anes.

LUÍS U. AFONSO
HISTORIADOR DA ARTE, FLUL