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Alabaster pedestal, for an alabaster figure, Italian, Trapani workshop, Sicily
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Pedestal. SM M632. Photograph taken in October 1947. ©A.C. Cooper (Colour) Ltd
Alabaster pedestal, for an alabaster figure, Italian, Trapani workshop, Sicily
c.1700-1750, manufactured
Trapani, manufactured
Carved alabaster
Height: 16.1cm
Width: 24cm
Depth: 14.3cm
Width: 24cm
Depth: 14.3cm
Museum number: M632
Not on display
Curatorial note
This is a typical example of a base made in the highly productive workshops of the city of Trapani, in western Sicily. For around two hundred years from the late sixteenth century, alabaster sculptures were made in large numbers in these workshops, alongside carvings in coral, ivory, wood and other materials. Whilst the largest part of the production was small reductions of the votive figure known as the Madonna of Trapani, other religious figures were made, as well as mythological and allegorical subjects. With the large shell on its front, this base probably was made to support a small statue of a saint; it is very similar in form to the base for a statuette of Saint George with the Dragon, in the Church of the Capuchin convent in the town of Caccamo near Palermo.
We are grateful to Dr Jeremy Warren for this catalogue entry 2021
We are grateful to Dr Jeremy Warren for this catalogue entry 2021
Associated items
S136, another similar
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