Italian Carved and Painted Wood Model of a Skull and Crossbones (1600 to 1800 Italian)

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Wood and Polychrome

Provenance: Ex Southern French Private collection

The skull and crossbones is used in devotional art to identify the site of Christ’s crucifixion known by the Hebrew word, ‘Golgotha’ which translates as ‘the place of the skull’. The traditional site for the crucifixion is thought to be within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and this place is also known as Mount Calvary from the Latin Calvaria, which means simply ‘skull’.

An Italian Carved and Painted Wood Model of a Skull and Crossbones
Perhaps from a Calvary group
Late 17th Century

Size: 18cm high, 33cm wide, 20cm deep – 7 ins high, 13ins wide, 8 ins deep