Saint John the Baptist in prayer

Very rare finely sculpted ivory plaque depicting Saint John the Baptist in Prayer, very close to the ways of Albrecht Dürer. Probably part of a larger composition to decorate a wooden casket.

Albrecht Dürer, in archaic Italian also known as Alberto Duro (Nuremberg, 21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528) was a German painter, engraver, sculptor, mathematician and treatise writer. Among the major artists of the 16th century, he is considered the greatest exponent of German Renaissance painting. Dürer knew and admired Italian art. In his works he combined Renaissance perspective and proportions with the typically Nordic taste for the realism of details. The faces, bodies and clothes of his characters are depicted with meticulous detail, the environments are described in a realistic manner and the spaces are clear and tidy thanks to a precise perspective grid.