Overall the condition of the relief is good, with some wear and dirt to the surface consistent with age. The relief is in six sections, and stable joints are visible, some of them slightly open. The sections of the relief have been applied to a later wood board, and glue residue, as well as some fill, is visible around the joints. A few smaller sections are carved separately and apparently reattached, including two around the top right corner and one at the top edge above the tree. It appears that the sections between the soldiers and the tree are wrongly assembled or have some losses around them. There is some stable splitting to the wood consistent with the material, notably to the centre of the tree and to the right side of the composition. There are a few losses, including between the soldiers' lances, to the fingers of Judas's proper left hand, and to the torchbearer's lantern. There is also an area of wood fill running down the torchbearer's proper right side, hand, and lantern. There is some dark residue to the wood in several areas and particularly in the crevices, as well as between Christ and the sleeping disciples. Christ's halo has been reattached with glue. There are a few minor chips along the edges.
The mount is in good condition with some dirt and wear, in particular to the velvet cover, which has some fraying and minor losses at the corners.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
Ambitiously conceived and virtuosically carved, the present relief is a small masterpiece of Baroque sculpture. To the right we see the Agony in the Garden, with Christ praying and his apostles sleeping at his feet, while to the left Judas is advancing with the Roman troops, foreshadowing Christ's imminent arrest. The figures' broad, muscular physique and compressed, grimacing faces find a compelling comparison in reliefs that have been attributed to the so-called Master of the Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, an anonymous ivory carver who is thought to have been active in Salzburg and Vienna during the third quarter of the 17th century. Central to this group is the large-scale ivory relief showing the eponymous subject in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (inv. no. KK 3654), dated 1655, whose extraordinary quality and level of detail is arguably not matched by the present relief. However other reliefs in ivory that have been associated with the Master show such close stylistic resemblance to the present work as to suggest that they could be by the same hand. These are notably the
Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian in the Oberösterreichisches Landesmuseum in Linz, and the
Judgment of Solomon in the Hessisches Landesmuseum in Darmstadt; the latter may have been executed by a sculptor from the Master's immediate circle, (see Bückling,
op. cit., p. 74). All three reliefs are marked by a busy composition with a high level of emotion and naturalistic detail, populated by stocky figures with tightly assembled, parallel folds of drapery. Particularly convincing comparisons can be made between the background figures in the
Solomon relief and the soldiers in the
Agony, and between the faces of the archers in the
Saint Sebastian relief and that of the torchbearer in the present relief. While works attributed to the Master are almost exclusively in ivory, the existence of a pearwood version of the Metropolitan Museum’s ivory
Hercules and Achelous group in the Waddesdon Bequest (British Museum, inv. no. WB.262) indicates that the sculptor also excelled in the medium of wood.
The proposition by some scholars that the Master of the Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian may be identified with Johann Caspar Schenck, a member of the famous Konstanz dynasty of sculptors, is not convincing based on a comparison with his signed works. However, the present relief exhibits some close similarities to carvings by his slightly younger and better known relative, Christoph Daniel Schenck, who frequently worked in wood. In particular, his pair of limewood reliefs with Saints Peter and Paul (Konstanz, op. cit., fig. 36) share many of the Agony relief's stylistic traits. Although Schenck's carvings are on the whole more stylised, with a leaner figural type, the relation of his work to the present relief would seem to provide further indication of an artistic exchange between the Lake Konstanz sculptors and the Master at court in Austria.
RELATED LITERATURE
E. v. Philippovich, 'Hauptwerke des Elfenbeinkünstlers Johann Caspar Schenck', Kunst in Hessen und am Mittelrhein, vol. 13, 1973, pp. 47-51; Christoph Daniel Schenck, 1633-1691, exh. cat. Rosgartenmuseum Konstanz (et al.), Sigmaringen, 1996; M. Bückling and S. Haag (eds.), Elfenbein: Barocke Pracht am Wiener Hof, exh. cat. Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung, Frankfurt am Main, 2011, pp. 59-74
