Physical description
The Virgin holds the Christ-Child on her left arm and the remains of a flower-stem in her right hand. She wears a tall crown with foliate crestings over a veil and a multi-layered mantle drawn across her body over a gown. The Christ-Child is semi-naked, his bottom half covered with a long flowing cloth; He blesses with His right hand and holds a book in His left hand. The Virgin was acquired with an associated canopy, composed of three trefoil crocket gables, with crawling animals at the corners (a pig, a dog, arabbit , and a lion) and with tall square crenellated towers above.
Place of Origin
Normandy, France (Probably, made)
Date
ca. 1350-1370 (made)
Artist/maker
Unknown (production)
Materials and Techniques
Carved limestone, with remains of paint and gilding and inlaid glass
Dimensions
Height: 167.2 cm Including base/support, Width: 59 cm, Depth: 30 cm, Weight: 168 kg
Object history note
Formerly in the collection of Prince Soltykoff, Paris; Soltykoff sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, 15th April 1861, lot 227 (bought by John Webb, 510 francs); bought from John Webb, London, in 1862 (£24)
Historical significance: This particular type of Virgin and Child derives from prototypes in the Ile-de-France. The idiosyncratic treatment of the Virgin's drapery and the mannered, rather cold, represantations of the faces of both the Virgin and Child suggest that it is a provincial product. The use of inlaid glass encrustation around the borders of the Virgin's mantle points to an origin in Normandy.
Historical context note
Figures of the Virgin and Child were displayed on consoles which were attached to the piers of the nave or on the walls of the aisles.
Descriptive line
Statue, the Virgin and Child, carved limestone, French, Normandy, ca. 1350-1370
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Inventory of Art Objects Acquired in the Year 1862 In: Inventory of the Objects in the Art Division of the Museum at South Kensington, Arranged According to the Dates of their Acquisition. Vol I. London: Printed by George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode for H.M.S.O., 1868, p. 21
Williamson, Paul and Evelyn, P. Northern Gothic Sculpture 1200-1450. London, 1988, pp. 130&133
Labels and date
This statue of the Virgin has the distinctive characteristic of glass encrustation around the edges of the draperies, a feature which suggests it was carved in Normandy, where a number of other Virgins have the same decoration. In addition to these inlays the whole sculpture was originally realistically painted (these colours have now faded and been overpainted) and the lower part of the Virgin's mantle was patterned with roundels, the ghosts of which survive. [Jan 1990]
Materials
Limestone
Techniques
Carving; Gilding; Inlay
Subjects depicted
Virgin and Child
Categories
Sculpture; Religion; Christianity
Collection code
SCP
