Flemish School of Mechelen, 17th century.

Flemish School of Mechelen, 17th century.
"Nativity".
Alabaster carved in bas-relief.
Embossed metal frame.
Measurements: 12,5 x 9 cm; 22,5 x 19 cm (frame).

Representation of the Holy Family and two angels, in alabaster carved by the renowned school of Mechelen. It is the theme of the Nativity and is worked at different levels of depth, so that the bodies protrude from a barely hinted architectural background. The foundations of the Mechelen alabaster industry were laid by a small group of artists, some of them foreigners, who worked in the early 16th century for the court of Margaret of Austria in the then new Renaissance style that had been imported from Italy. Their presence in Mechelen stimulated local carvers to work alabaster in this new vocabulary of forms. The main products of these so-called "minor works carvers" were these small altarpieces decorated with mythological and biblical themes that were made well into the first half of the 17th century.

Alabaster was a material widely used in European sculpture, especially between the 14th and 17th centuries. Its relative availability and its characteristic of being easy to sculpt made it a very suitable material for both large monuments and small objects, for mass production and for individual works, from England to Spain and from France to the Netherlands, Germany and Poland.