Vintage Folk Art Hand-Carved Wood Weeping Christ Sculpture, 1930s

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Description

Expressive vintage folk art sculpture depicting the weeping face of Jesus Christ wearing the Crown of Thorns.
The sculpture is … Read more Expressive vintage folk art sculpture depicting the weeping face of Jesus Christ wearing the Crown of Thorns.
The sculpture is hand-carved directly from a natural section of solid wood, with the original tree bark deliberately retained along the back and sides as an integral part of the composition.
Christ is represented with a deeply modeled face, prominent moustache, long divided beard, stylized Crown of Thorns and carved tears descending from the eyes. The contrast between the carefully worked facial features and the untouched natural bark gives the piece a powerful, almost primitive sculptural quality.
This distinctive form of religious wood carving belongs to a broader tradition of European devotional and folk sculpture.
Comparable carved representations of the suffering Christ have occasionally appeared on the international antiques market with suggested associations to the Croatian sculptor Ivan Meštrović (1883–1962), whose oeuvre includes important religious sculptures and works in wood.
The present sculpture, however, is unsigned and has no documented provenance. No attribution to Ivan Meštrović or his workshop is therefore made.
The maker, precise geographical origin, type of wood and exact date of manufacture remain unknown.
A highly expressive piece of 20th-century religious folk art, particularly suitable for a collection of devotional sculpture, European folk art or carved wooden objects. See less