Virgin and Child

Physical description

Carved ivory statuette depicting the Virgin and Child. The Virgin stands holding the Child in her left arm while he leans forward to touch her neck and hand. Both are crowned with high ivory crowns. The statuette rests on a base of ivory and wood veneered with alabaster, supported on clouds of mother of pearl; below is a large pedestal of similar materials.

Place of Origin

Sicily, Italy (probably, made)

Date

17th century (made)

Artist/maker

unknown (production)

Materials and Techniques

Carved ivory with wood, alabaster and mother of pearl

Dimensions

Height: 20.5 cm with base

Object history note

Formerly in the Sneyd Collection, Keele Hall.
This statuette is copied from a fourteenth century statue of the Virgin and Child in the Church of the Madonna at Trapani in Sicily, a statue which was frequently imitated and which reproduced the Pisan type of the thirteenth century.
Bought for £10.

Historical context note

There is an almost exactly similar statuette in ivory in the British Museum (Dalton, Catalogue, No. 537)

Descriptive line

Statuette, carved ivory, depicting the Virgin and Child, Italy, Sicily, 17th century

Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)

List of Works of Art Acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum in the Years 1905 - 1908. In: List of Works of Art Acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum, During the Year 1907, Arranged According to the Dates of Acquisition with Appendix and Indices. London: Printed for His Majesty's Stationery Office, by Eyre and Spottiswoode, Limited, 1909, p. 169
Longhurst, Margaret H. Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory. Part II. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1929, p. 104

Materials

Wood; Ivory; Mother of pearl; Alabaster

Techniques

Carving

Subjects depicted

Jesus Christ; Mary (Virgin Mary); Crown; Christianity; Cloud

Categories

Sculpture; Religion; Christianity

Collection code

SCP