Portable Altar in a Carrying Case (Christ on the Mount of Olives)

Jacopo Ligozzi, the son of a family of painters and designers, was court artist to four successive Grand Dukes of Tuscany and was known both for his paintings and detailed drawings, as well as for his designs for decoration in pietre dure, or hardstones. The AMAM also possesses delicate studies of a camel and hedgehog by the artist.

Ligozzi painted the scene of Christ on the Mount of Olives (Agony in the Garden) on copper as the centerpiece of this elaborate portable altar, as well as the tiny Sacrifice of Isaac below, on costly and precious lapis lazuli. He is also very likely responsible for the design of the overall altarpiece and its case, which would have been made along with the assistance of specialists working in pietre dure, from a Medici Grand Ducal workshop set up for that purpose in the sixteenth century. The altar, created from wood stained to look like ebony, also includes two gilt bronze columns inlaid with lapis lazuli and inlays of mother-of-pearl, agate, lapis, and semiprecious stones, as well as silver putti with gilded wings.

It is accompanied by its original carrying case, making this an exceptionally rare piece. The wooden case, painted with fictive lapis lazuli panels, displays an elaborate floral design-among his many talents, Ligozzi was a botanical illustrator-as well as a center cartouche with "IHS," an abbreviation for "Jesus" and the monogram of the Jesuits, a cross, and a heart pierced with three nails, symbolic of those used in Christ's crucifixion.

The central painting depicts Christ, immediately prior to his arrest, collapsing against an angel who gestures heavenwards in the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives. A chalice surmounted by a tiny cross appears on the outcropping behind them, bathed in a glowing pink and yellow light. Christ's limp arms, open mouth, and half-closed eyes are visual manifestations of his intense suffering, as he contemplates his impending death. In conformance with the biblical text about this moment, his sweat drops in tiny rivulets of blood. In the smaller painting below, an emulation of the predella of a larger altarpiece, the sacrificial fire burns as an angel stays Abraham's blow, while a tiny ram appears from the right, to take Isaac's place. Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son was considered a prefiguration of the crucifixion of Jesus. Here, the brilliant blues and whites of the lapis themselves form the sky.

Such an elaborate and precious object was likely made as a gift from the Medici court to a wealthy, noble (and still unidentified) family. The altar's provenance can only be traced to Vienna in the mid- twentieth century. Oberlin emeritus professor of art William Hood, noting its date of 1608, has posited that it might have been made as a gift from the Medici to the Hapsburgs in Vienna during marriage negotiations for Archduchess Maria Magdalena and the Medici eldest son and heir that summer (he succeeded his father the following year, as Cosimo II). The altar would have been used in a personal, domestic religious setting, and naturally would have been able to be carried in its case for use when traveling. The altar and case together are truly an exceptional set of works that unite painting, stonework, architecture, and sculpture into a magnificent whole, and speak to the use of luxury materials and private devotion in the early seventeenth century.