The industry for producing alabaster carvings in England flourished from the mid-14th to the mid-16th centuries. While most of these carvings were produced in Nottingham, workshops also existed in London, York and Burton-on-Trent. These highly stylised carvings were very occasionally made as single figures but most commonly as series of individual rectangular panels, as seen here, which could be transported with relative ease and fitted into an architectural surround. Compared to works in stone or marble, alabaster carvings were relatively cheap because of the ease with which the material could be carved, thus they were attractive to less wealthy churches and for private devotion.
Throughout the two centuries of their production, English, and specifically Nottingham, alabasters were hugely popular on the local market and for export overseas. Dealers located in ports such as Hull, Southampton and Bristol represented the carvers and saw to the exportation of their works across Europe and in particular to France and Spain, where even today some churches retain their English alabaster altarpieces. Unfortunately, the Dissolution of the Monasteries in England from 1536 onwards saw the total collapse of the industry and thereafter even larger numbers of English alabasters were shipped off to Catholic Europe to be sold at vastly reduced prices.
Rectangular alabasters were often produced as part of a series of five panels making up an altarpiece. The most commonly depicted subjects were episodes from the Passion of Christ or Life of the Virgin and typically had a Crucifixion as the central scene (see the Swansea Altarpiece, Cheetham, op. cit. p. 33). The floral pattern comprised of white dots with a red centre on a green background is characteristic of the decoration of Nottingham alabasters and can be seen on many other works including the Swansea Altarpiece. Similar examples to the present lot depicting Christ on the way to Calvary are housed at the Victoria and Albert Museum (ibid., p. 241, no. 168) and the Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio (inv. no. 1969.296). Both are also dated to the 15th century and have a similar compositional makeup, with the large cross dominating the foreground and cutting the scene into three. Comparison with these two museum pieces demonstrates the outstanding quality and condition of the present lot with many of the more intricate details still intact including the rope tied around Christ’s waist held taught by the two executioners either side. One element not included in either museum piece is the dynamic figure in the upper right of the scene. Dressed the same as the men in the foreground with a low-slung belt around his hips, he is pulling down on the cross to make Christ’s burden even heavier.