Biography

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 panel 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 Gallery), 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.