A carved marble Nativity group attributed to Gian Giacomo della Porta According to the 19th century hand-written label on the back of the work, this finely carved relief originates from the 16th century princely chapel of the collegiate church of Saint-Maxe in the town of Bar-le-Duc in Lorraine, which was destroyed in 1719, after which the relief was transferred to the abbey of Notre Dame in nearby Benoite Vaux. The former attribution to the Lorraine court artist Ligier Richier (1500-1567) proved to be untenable due to the work's stylistic proximity to contemporary works made in Northern Italy and Lombardy. In his expertise, David Lucidi attributed the relief to Gian Giacomo della Porta, an artist documented in Genoa from 1513 onwards, who was also active as an architect during the building of Milan Cathedral from 1524 to 1528. He dates the work to around 1515/1525. Certificate David Lucidi (undated). The back left rough 31 x 27 x 8 cm Very minimal wear with minor losses to the edges. South German private collection. For more information on Gian Giacomo della Porta see A. W. Kruft, A. Roth: The Della Porta Workshop in Genoa, in: Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, vol. 3, 1973, p. 893-954, here p. 897-908.