Francesco Terilli - Crucifix, about 1600

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This Italian crucifix is carved in ivory and set on a dark wood cross and base. The slender body of Christ hangs from the cross to which he is nailed, with his long arms V-shaped, and his head hanging toward our left. His eyes are closed, his lips are parted, and his hair and beard are neat. On his head is a crown of thorns and above it, tilted to our left, is a dark circular halo. Christ’s body bears a horizontal slit, from which blood drips, on the side of his chest to our left. His knees touch and his feet are nailed together. A loincloth is tied and draped over his lower torso. The ivory has a yellow-orange cast. The base of the cross includes a rectangular pedestal below, a smaller carved piece above, and geometric designs. The part of the cross above Christ’s head has a lacy plate attached to it with the inscription INRI. 

Francesco Terilli (active Feltre, 1610 - 1633)

Crucifix, about 1600

Ivory on a wood cross and base, 83 cm (32 11/16 in.)

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Commentary

Ivory is an ideal material for small devotional sculptures: its resiliency permits fine detailing while its natural translucency imparts a gleaming aura to objects. Terilli specialized in carving ivory crucifixes: at least eight survive. They date from around 1600 onwards, placing them at the beginning of the Baroque taste for ivory crucifixes, which became especially strong in Flanders and southern Germany in the course of the seventeenth century.

Ralph Curtis found this crucifix in Venice for Mrs. Gardner. She placed it in her boudoir in her Beacon Street house. At Fenway Court it was placed on the altar in the Long Gallery Chapel, in front of the Soissons window.

Source: Eye of the Beholder, edited by Alan Chong et al. (Boston: ISGM and Beacon Press, 2003): 110.