Italy
18th century
Olivewood
Height: 10¾ in (27.3 cm), Length: 5 in (12.7 cm)
Provenance: Private Collection, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Small portable altars in carved wood were produced throughout Catholic Italy for domestic devotional use, combining architectural framing with figurative carving to create self-contained devotional objects that could be placed in a home chapel, bedside, or private oratory. The olivewood tradition for devotional objects has particular resonance in Italian Catholic culture given the wood's association with the Holy Land and its use in rosaries, crosses, and sacred carvings across several centuries. Gothic revival arch forms appearing in eighteenth century Italian devotional carving reflect a persistent medievalism in sacred object production long after the baroque had become the dominant church style.
This altar is carved with a pointed Gothic arch canopy sheltering a Madonna and Child group below, the figures rendered with the compact directness characteristic of popular devotional carving rather than high workshop production. The olivewood surface has developed a deep brown patina with age, and the carving of the arch with its foliate ornament and the figural group below retains its original detail. The Albuquerque provenance gives the piece a clear single-owner American collecting history.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
Italy
18th century
Olivewood
Height: 10¾ in (27.3 cm), Length: 5 in (12.7 cm)
Provenance: Private Collection, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Small portable altars in carved wood were produced throughout Catholic Italy for domestic devotional use, combining architectural framing with figurative carving to create self-contained devotional objects that could be placed in a home chapel, bedside, or private oratory. The olivewood tradition for devotional objects has particular resonance in Italian Catholic culture given the wood's association with the Holy Land and its use in rosaries, crosses, and sacred carvings across several centuries. Gothic revival arch forms appearing in eighteenth century Italian devotional carving reflect a persistent medievalism in sacred object production long after the baroque had become the dominant church style.
This altar is carved with a pointed Gothic arch canopy sheltering a Madonna and Child group below, the figures rendered with the compact directness characteristic of popular devotional carving rather than high workshop production. The olivewood surface has developed a deep brown patina with age, and the carving of the arch with its foliate ornament and the figural group below retains its original detail. The Albuquerque provenance gives the piece a clear single-owner American collecting history.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
