Jacobus Agnesius (active second quarter 17th century) Italian or South German, circa 1640

signed: IACO...S. A...S ...VENS..., the titulus inscribed: INRI; flanked by South Netherlandish late 17th-century ivory figures of the Virgin and Saint John the Evangelist

Overall the condition of the ivory corpus is very good with minor dirt and wear to the surface consistent with age. The proper right little finger is lost. There is stable splitting to the ivory throughout, consistent with the material, chiefly running from the top to the bottom through the body of Christ. Some of the splits have darkened with age and dirt. There are a few small losses to the ropes of the perizonium at Christ's proper right hip and at his lower back. The corpus is composed in sections, and joints are visible. The joints at the arms are slightly open. A piece of the perizonium on the proper right side is carved separately, and there is a slightly open but stable joint. There are also two original plugs in this section of the drapery. There is a small original ivory peg in the back of Christ's head. There is notable dirt, in particular to the crevices and to the back of the corpus. The signature is rubbed and is partially legible. There are a few small abrasions, and there are a few specks of paint or dirt. The ivory terminals from the cross are lost. The title plaque appears to be reattached. There is a split running through the left arm of the cross. The ebony altarpiece base is in good condition, with dirt and wear consistent with age, including minor stable splitting consistent with the material. There are a few small chips and abrasions, particularly to the edges and corners. A piece of ebony inlay to the right of Mary is lost. There is very minor worming to the wood consistent with the material. The skull of Golgotha is lost. The accompanying ivory figures are in good condition with minor stable splitting to the ivory, consistent with the material, including to St John's face. There are a few small chips and abrasions, particularly to St John's drapery at his proper left shoulder at the back. St John's proper right hand is carved separately and is a little loose. The figures would have had halos which are now lost, and there are holes to the tops of the heads.
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This extraordinary Baroque corpus is an important addition to the oeuvre of Jacobus Agnesius, one of the greatest and rarest 17^th-century ivory carvers. Signed to the reverse of the perizonium, the corpus, which is one of only a handful of known autograph works by the sculptor, exhibits all of the hallmarks of his virtuoso technique: from the anatomically accurate musculature and the rippling folds of drapery, to the trailing strands of hair and individually delineated teeth. With its innovative writhing pose and deeply anguished expression, defined by the open mouth and the eyeballs rolled back into the skull, the corpus epitomises the Baroque concern for drama and human emotion.

Little is known about the sculptor Jacobus Agnesius. Until the recent rediscovery of the present corpus his work was known principally from an ivory group of the Martyrdom of St. Bartholomew in the Musée Toulouse-Lautrec, Albi (Schmidt, op. cit., p. 23), which is signed and dated: 1638 / Jacobus Agnesius / Caluensis Sculp[sit]. The present corpus, which is the only other known signed work by Agnesius, has a partially legible inscription which appears to follow the same format. Debate has centred on the meaning of the word Caluensis, with scholars suggesting that this could refer to the Swabian city of Calw, or conversely to one of the Italian or French towns named Calvi (Schmidt, op. cit., p. 36). However, Eike Schmidt has noted that the use of an Antiqua script for the Bartholomew group signature would indicate that the sculptor spoke a Romance language, though Schmidt does not exclude the possibility that Agnesius may have been a German sculptor operating in Italy or France. Schmidt has recently pointed out the existence of a family of Corsican sculptors with the surname Agnesi, who were active in Genoa in the second half of the 17th century. He tentatively suggests that Jacobus (or Jacopo) may have been a relation of this family, and he notes similarities with works by Italian ivory carvers such as Domenico Bissoni (Schmidt and Sframeli, op. cit., pp. 190-201, nos. 52, 55, 56).

Schmidt lists a known oeuvre of only six works, all of which are characterized by their unusually large size. These are led by a St. Sebastian measuring 64cm in height, which was with Andrew Butterfield in 2011 and is now in a private collection. This remarkable ivory compares closely with the present figure, exhibiting the same agonized facial expression, with brows drawn together, large elongated oval eyes with crisp lids and eyeballs rolled into the back of the head in pain, and open mouth with upper and lower sets of teeth delineated. These characteristics can be observed again, together with a very similar hairstyle, with central parting and long strands of hair, in two smaller figures of St. Sebastian in the Musée du Louvre (inv. no. TH158) and in the Liechtenstein Princely Collections which both follow the same model and have been attributed to Agnesius (respectively 42.4 and 43.5cm; Schmidt, op. cit., p. 35). Schmidt attributes a second St. Sebastian of a different composition in the Liechtenstein collections to Agnesius (measuring 32cm), and records the existence of another Bartholomew group in a private collection and a figure of St. Sebastian in the convent of St. Claire in Estella (Navarra). A third version of the Louvre/ Liechtenstein St. Sebastian has been deemed to be a 19th-century copy (Schmidt, op. cit., pp. 34, 35).

The present corpus would have been an important commission for Agnesius: this is confirmed by the large size of the figure, carved from an expensive exotic material. Moreover, the sculptor has sought to create a unique composition which conveys an unparalleled sense of pain and anguish. Christ’s head and arms are pinned back, whilst the thorax is thrust forward, seemingly about to be torn apart by the sheer strain of the body weight. The agony of the Passion is exacerbated by the superb physiognomic accuracy, which is of such a high standard as to indicate that Agnesius had direct experience of human dissection. Pulsating veins burst out of the flesh and the skeletal rib cage projects in unnerving detail through the skin. The sense of torturous pain is further heightened by the contorted right arm, which has been ripped from its socket, leaving a sagging cushion of muscles and tendons. Agnesius simultaneously refers to earlier artistic models, chiefly the Laocoön, in which the Trojan priest similarly writhes in pain, his neck thrust backwards, and his arms stretched apart. Schmidt has concluded that, ‘Jacobus Agnesius was one of the supreme sculptors in ivory during the Baroque. Like his contemporaries, the Master of the Furies, Leonhard Kern and Georg Petel, Agnesius helped make ivory sculpture one of the most sought-after and emblematic artistic media of the 17th century’ (Schmidt, op. cit., p. 40).

RELATED LITERATURE
K. Feuchtmayr, Georg Petel, 1601/2-1634, Berlin, 1973, no. 2; P. Malgouyres, Ivoires du musée du Louvre 1480-1850. Une collection inédite, Paris, 2005, pp. 78-81, no. 19; E. Schmidt, Beauty Bound and Power Unleashed: Jacobus Agnesius and the Quest for Expression in Baroque Ivory Sculpture, New York, 2011; E. Schmidt and M. Sframeli (eds.), Diafane passioni. Avori barocchi dalle corti europee, exh. cat. Palazzo Pitti, Museo degli Argenti, Florence, 2013, pp. 190-201, nos. 52, 55, 56