Gabriel Joly

c. 1530

The very elements of Gabriel Joly’s late style are evident in these two dramatic figures of Thieves, which were carved in box wood and conceived in perfect connection between the bodies and the crosses. The artist was familiar with the models of the Italian High Renaissance. He certainly had seen the figures on the vault of the Sixtine Chapel as suggested by the strong plasticity of figures, dynamism of postures and expression of suffering on the two Thieves faces.
This altogether passionate and naturalistic interpretation of Michelangelo and of the ancient world testify for Joly ‘s and his Spanish colleagues’s capacity to assimilate and elaborate anew his models.