Terms and Conditions
The artist, title and date of the work must be listed anywhere the image is reproduced:
England
St John the Baptist (15th century)
alabaster paint
72.2 × 26.6 × 10.5 cm
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Felton Bequest, 1923
Photo: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
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About this work
A major centre of religious sculpture in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries was Nottingham, England, home to large alabaster quarries. Lacking natural supplies of marble, English carvers instead chose alabaster, a gypsum-based stone. Because the material is much softer than marble, deeply carved objects were easier and faster to produce. ‘Nottingham alabasters’, which were typically painted, were exported in great numbers to Europe as private devotional objects and components of altars. The distinctive gaunt forms of ‘Nottingham alabasters’ were especially valued in Ferrara, Italy, seat of the Este court, where they are thought to have influenced local sculptors and painters, such as Cosmè Tura.
Artwork Details
Place/s of Execution
England
Accession Number
1301-3
Department
International Sculpture
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Dame Carol Colburn-Grigor CBE through Metal Manufactures Limited