18th / 19th Century German Carved Boxwood Corpus Christi & Memento Mori Skull
18th / 19th Century carved Boxwood or Fruitwood Corpus Christi on wooden memento mori skull, with miniature Mary & John figures. Southern Germany, probably Berchtesgaden.
Very unusual and striking miniature sculpture of the Corpus Christi cross sprouting as a tree from the skull base
The body of the cross is in the form of a trunk sprouting from a skull, a representation of the tree of life growing from the bones of Adam. It was believed that Adam was buried on Golgotha, the same site in which Christ was crucified.
Above the crucified Christ is a parchment engraved ‘INRI’, affixed by the Romans in jest, it is an abbreviation of the latin ‘Iēsus Nazarēnus, Rēx Iūdaeōrum’ which translates as ‘Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews’.
Reserved for private devotion, this interesting crucifix gives an interpretation of the Tree of Life symbolizing the sacrifice of Jesus for the redemption of the first Man and of Humanity.
A similar, larger example (24cm high) was sold in the ‘Spetchley - Property from the Berkeley Collection’ sale at Sotheby’s, London on 11 December 2019, lot 163 for £2,500. It could be found in the inventory of 1949, 'A crucifix mounted on a carved wood skull' in the Strong Room.
Condition good for age. Some possible minor restorations.
H: 14cm / W: 4cm.
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