Lamentation Beneath the Cross

Adam Lenckhart

1632 · Ivory · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

The fine perspectival gradations of relief create a painterly effect of distant background while the foreground is filled with vivid detail-the finely carved crown of thorns, the carefully observed leafy ferns, the bent nails removed from holes clearly indicated on the cross. Lenckhart often employed such detail to great expressive effect; here, the precise carving of the strands of hair curtaining the face of the Magdalen draws our gaze to her grief-stricken form.

Artist

Adam Lenckhart

Date

1632

Medium

Ivory

Culture

Austrian, carved in Italy

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Bequest of Mary Clark Thompson, 1923