Ancient Boxwood Micro Carving Deposition, First Half of the 18th Century

The boxwood bas-relief sculpture depicts the moment of the deposition of the body of Jesus from the cross.
Some men are depicted lowering the lifeless body of Christ, while others are shown leaning on the cross and crowding the ladders which rest on the instrument of martyrdom: one supports the body by the shoulders, two hold him up by the arms, two more are preparing to wrap it in a shroud. At the foot of the Cross Mary, women, John, and some apostles in tears attend the scene, ready to receive the body.

The theme of the deposition has been interpreted in various ways throughout the history of art, starting with Medieval depictions, such as that of Antelami in the Cathedral of Parma, and stretching through Donatello, Mantegna, and reaching Caravaggio and beyond. In sculpture, the subject was particularly successful and was reproduced in different materials.
Between about 1524 and 1534, Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) made a drawing, today at the Teylers museum in Haarlem (see Pope-Hennessy, Catalog of Italian Sculpture in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London 1964, vol. 3, p. 275), in preparation for a Deposition which he did not make, but which had a great influence on many of the subsequent depictions of the same subject.
Inspired by this drawing, Guglielmo Della Porta (1515-1577) made a well-known bas-relief (Galleria Nazionale di Parma. See Jennifer Montagu, Roman Baroque Sculpture: The Industry of Art, Yale University Press 1989, pp. 56-57) which consecrated the fortune of Michelangelo’s invention: different versions of bronze, stucco, terracotta and wax are known.
A direct comparison with other works taken from this model however deviates from our work. The bas-relief by Giovanni Della Porta is more consistent with Michelangelo’s drawing. The disposition of the characters around the cross does not match: the men who lower the body climb over the cross, the position of Christ’s body itself is a bit haphazard, supported by one leg as it is welcomed at the bottom by some characters. The crowd supports Mary and desperately gathers around the cross: the dramatization is greater.
Yet, albeit indirectly, the compositional idea of our small sculpture also derives from Michelangelo’s intuition.
Starting in turn from Buonarroti’s creation and probably following some subsequent interpretation, Charles Le Brun (1619-1690), between 1679 and 1684, conceived and painted the Deposition for Marshal Villeroy, now preserved at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Rennes (see C. Nivelon, Vie de Charles Le Brun et description détaillée de ses ouvrages, edited by L. Pericolo, Genève 2004, pp. 479-480; and F. Bergot, Nouvel aménagement: à propos de la Déscente de croix de Le Brun, in Bulletin de la Societé des Amis du Musée des Beaux – Arts de Rennes, 1978, pp. 56-62).
About twenty years later Petit (his first name is not known, nor are his biographical details) obtained from the painting an engraving that was printed in Paris by François Chereu (1680-1729), a famous engraver and publisher (a copy is found in Monza at the Civic Collection of Engravings at the Serrone di Villa Reale, general catalog 00647162).
We do not know if our anonymous carver drew inspiration directly from the painting or, more likely, from the engraving; but the first hypothesis is not to be entirely discarded since the boxwood Deposition has the same orientation as that painted by Le Brun, while the print is a mirror image.
The author of our bas-relief carved the hardwood with a completely personal skill and style of representation and added to the source elements closer to his own experience, modifying somewhat the staging of the scene: the commoners wear hats and robes and other figures are placed at the foot of the cross.
The material used and the artistic style are close to technical products typical of Central and Western Europe, especially in the rendering of the physiognomic features of the figures and in the treatment of the clod of earth on which the scene rests, defined by small parallel carvings.