Featured Travel triptych (18th Century?)

I am not sure this object is "art", but I thought it is interesting and somehow a bit naive.

As there is many knowledge here on this forum I'd like to ask you to help me to get as much possible information about this object. It contains many different materials, so any input is welcome!

This is an obvious Catholic triptych, bought in Belgium some time ago and probably served as a personal devotional item.

This is what I see:

A small (20 cm high) wooden casket, with in the middle part a figure of Jesus (bone? ivory?) in front of a piece of fabric. On the panels at the side a naive painting of a woman (Virgin Mary with a child and a priest(?)) with flowers in his hand



The verso




The male figure.

Maybe a shot in the dark, but I think this is Aloysius Gonzaga as he is depicted as a young priest with a lily in his hand. He was beatified in 1605 and canonized in 1726. He was a popular saint in Spain and the southern Low Countries in the 18th century. He was the patron of young students.

The corpus

The figure of Jesus is made of bone or Ivory and looks to me earlier than the triptych itself. The corpus is stylized in a way I have never seen. The ankles are quite weird. Maybe it is a particular style or just very naive made. The arms are separate pieces.


The cloth

As I do not know anything about cloth I cannot say much about it. It seems cut out a larger piece.


My thoughts about this piece

It looks like a personal travel altar for a Jesuit (because Saint Aloysius) student from about 1730-1750. The altar was arranged from an older corpus, together with some materials from the 18th century. It was made quite crude.

What do you think?

 

Folk art, which is also art. It is charming.

Thought so.

My guess is bone.

My thought exactly.

Could have been a devotional item that was already present in the home.

Yes, it is. Maybe a kazuifel (can't think of the English word)?

 

Those arms look like they came from a doll or marionette and replaced arms that were missing from the figure. I've been visiting Belgium for 35 years and have seen many religious icons and figures. In my opinion, this looks more Mexican than anything else. It looks deliberately distressed to me also.

 

A kazuifel is Chasuble in English.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chasuble

 

That is possible because Jesuits were missionaries. Can it also be Spanish maybe?

 

It looks European to me.

Ex Libris lives in my town, so a stone's throw from the border with Belgium. Many here have relatives in Belgium, who we visit. People here hop across the border regularly anyway, even if it is just for a night out or going to an exhibition. We are accustomed to seeing Belgian art, which is not that different from our art in the south.

 

The Christ doesn't look Spanish, too constrained.

The thing is, people from the US have Mexico on their doorstep, so that is their reference, just like ours is Europe.
That can be confusing for either side of the pond if we see something from the other side.

 

The female figure is holding something in her right hand, can you make out what it is? Could be an attribute by which you recognise a saint.

 

I think it is a crown. That must be Mary.

 

Maybe a crown for the Jesus child at her knee?

 

For me it is more Belgian old paper than other objects. The metal furniture on the triptych is quite similar to the clasps on some of my books from the same period.

 

Is is very common to depict Mary with a crown:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronation_of_the_Virgin

 

Yes it is, most Mary statues even have gold or silver crown, but I was referring to the object in her right hand.

 

I don't know what the hardware on antique wooden Mexican retablos looks like, but the general shape of your altar is different from Mexican retablos. And Mexican wooden retablos are more ornate.
The costume of the Mary figure is very much as it is depicted in Catholic NW and Central Europe, imo.

 

What Mary's holding in her right hand appears to be exactly like the crown She's wearing! That whole piece of art is lovely with lovely age!!!!

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It looks like shes holding another crown to me. I just love this piece.

 

Another American here. I see a Spanish influence too but would have thought more Peru than Mexico for whatever reason. The hinges look like a smith used leftovers but not like this was done in a really metal-poor area where all finished metals had to be imported.

 

My first thought was Colonial Spanish too. Because of the naivety of the figures' execution. And the hirsute priest signals Spanish rather than native.

Debora

 

It's been established that the woman is Mary, but just to point out another fact... traditionally she is depicted with a blue outer robe, and the same shade of blue as in this triptych (that blue has a name but I forget what it is...).

 

You mean Lapis Lazuli (ultramarine) blue?