Adams and Eves - four figures in the collection of the Rijksmuseum

Between 1670 and his death in 1673, the Antwerp sculptor Pieter Xaveri lived in Leiden, where he specialized in small figures modelled in clay. Thanks to these signed ivory figurines, we know that he also worked in that material. His work in clay was expressive and quickly modeled, quite different than these fluid, yet restrained forms. Height: 17cm = 6.69 inches.

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North of the Alps, bronze casting was still in its infancy at the turn of the sixteenth century. While Italian bronze-casters crafted their modelli in wax and clay, Nederlandish and German sculptors still worked from carved wooden models. Their figures – like this pair (which comes from Stift Heilingenkreuz, a Cistercian abbey near Vienna) – thus look rather stiff. Height: 71cm = 28 inches.