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Capezzale with a Nativity Scene, Trapani, mid 17th century

Exhibited by Brun Fine Art

Material Gilded copper, coral, and enamel

Dimensions 29.5 x 24.5 cm

Place of Creation Trapani, Sicily

Price 140000€

Status Not Vetted

About the Work

The octagonal plaque has a convex external frame and a concave internal one, both covered with coral fuses placed in parallel with small white enamel corollas on the corners. The copper plate falls slightly into a central niche above a horizontal caesura. Inside the niche are the carved figures of the Holy Family surmounted by small angels; outside, on the demarcation line, three figures of worshipers are placed while below appear the ox and the donkey with other herds. Musician, angels and cherubs fly above the niche. The external profile is enriched with an openwork motif with enamel highlights and double corollas that combine the enamel with coral, materials used in the rich attachment with a cherub. The reverse has engraved scroll motifs.

In Sicily, the term capezzale indicates this type of devotional image which was usually hung next to the headboard of the bed. The subjects depicted in these

plaques made with coral, copper and enamels could contemplate one or more figures and were often articulated, as in our case, by the slight concavity of the background panel often equipped, as also happens here, with a niche in order to give an illusion of perspective depth.

This expedient is, in our example, augmented by the progressive shrinking of the figures of worshipers on the sides of the Holy Family, placed on a sort of step that acts as a horizon.

From the same workshop that prepared the example presented here is an capezzale of similar dimensions but with a less convincing distribution of the figures at the bottom and top: the carvings of the Virgin and Saint Joseph are identical between the two examples, as is the external fretwork. The same perforated embellishment in coral and enamel can be found on the outside of

a plaque from the Romano collection (Palermo): in that case it is a twelve-sided shape with a niche in the center hosting the Immaculate Conception and two smaller figures of Saint Francis and Saint Catherine in a background which, as in our example, alludes to a perspective vision, indicative of greater attention

to the typically Baroque taste which allows us to date these works to the mid

17th century.

Expertise by Roberto Valeriani.

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