A CARVED IVORY AND EBONY CRUCIFIXION

BY JEAN-ANTOINE BELLETESTE (1731-1811), 1789

Details

A CARVED IVORY AND EBONY CRUCIFIXION
BY JEAN-ANTOINE BELLETESTE (1731-1811), 1789
In a glazed ebony display case; signed on the reverse of the ivory base 'fait. Par. Belletesete./A. Dieppe 1789.'.
Very minor losses; cracks to the case.
14 in. (36.8 cm.) high, overall

Literature

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
M. Kryjanovskaja and L. Faenson, Westeuropische Elfenbeinarbeiten aus der Ermitage Leningrad XI. - XIX. Jahrhundert, Berlin, 1974, nos. 102-105.
R.H. Randall Jr., Masterpieces of Ivory from the Walters Art Gallery, London, 1985, pp. 281-2.

Lot Essay

Jean-Antoine Belleteste (1731-1811) came from a family of ivory carvers. His father Antoine had a prolific shop in Dieppe, trading in all types of ivory objects from snuff-boxes and fretwork cases to figures of saints mounted on pedestals (W. R. Johnston, in Masterpieces of Ivory, pp. 281-282). Examples of such mounted saints by Jean-Antoine can be seen in the Hermitage in St. Petersburgh (Kryjanovskaja and Faenson, oc. cit.). Dieppe was, in the 18th century, one of the main centres of ivory carving in France. Belleteste worked within this tradition and his fame grew to the extent that he later produced statuettes of the Four Seasons for Marie Antoinette's cabinet at Versailles. The present group is notable for its complexity of design and the fine detail of its carving.

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