LENCKHARDT, Adam

German sculptor and ivory-carver. He was the son of Nikolaus Lenckhardt (d 1632), a sculptor, and first trained with his father (1622-24). He then set out on his journeyman's travels, visiting Italy in 1632. To this period of his career belongs an ivory panelGLOSSARYTerm in painting for a support of wood, metal, or other rigid substance, as distinct from canvas. Until the adoption of canvas in the 15th century nearly all the movable paintings of Europe were executed on wood, and even up to the beginning of the 17th century it is probable that as much painting was done on the one support as on the other. Painters who worked on a small scale often used copper panels (Elsheimer is a leading example), and in the colonial art of South America copper and tin and even lead and zinc were used. On a larger scale, slate has occasionally been used as a support, notably by Rubens for his altarpiece for Sta Maria in Vallicella (the Chiesa Nuova) in Rome; the picture he originally painted was said to reflect the light unpleasantly and slate was used for the replacement to produce a more matt finish. For wood panels the Italian masters of the Renaissance preferred white poplar, while oak was the most common wood used in northern Europe. Many other types were used, however; analysis of the contents of art galleries has yielded a long list, including beech, cedar, chestnut, fir, larch, linden, mahogany, olive, and walnut. In the 20th century cedar, teak, and dark walnut are favourites, and modern painters have also used plywood, fibre-board, and other synthetic materials as supports. representing the Lamentation (c. 1630; London, Victoria and Albert Museum). Its composition may have been based on an etching (1597) by Annibale Carracci, which was in turn indebted to Raphael. Rather more accomplished are two ivory panels of the Lamentation and the Assumption of the Virgin (both 1632; New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art). Although Lenckhardt executed them while still a journeyman, they already display his complete mastery of his art.

His first dated composition in the round is the group of the Virgin and Child with St John (1635; Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum), which bears the monogram AL. Again, the composition suggests that it was modelled on an Italian prototype. His Cleopatra with the Asp (Baltimore, Walters Art GalleryGLOSSARYan upper story, similar to a tribune, running along the side of a building and open on one side to the interior; in a church (basilica) above the side aisles, over the ambulatory (central-plan building) and also over the west end. The gallery was used to keep certain groups of worshippers apart (women, noblemen).), which probably belongs to the same period, may be traced back to the work of Rubens or his followers, which Lenckhardt probably knew from engravings.