The Virgin and Child thumbnail 1
The Virgin and Child thumbnail 2
+6
images
Not currently on display at the V&A

The Virgin and Child

Statuette
15th century to early 16th century (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This is an ivory statuette of the Virgin and Child, made in Italy (Sicily), possibly fifteenth or early sixteenth century, after a mid-fourteenth-century model.
Three dimensional images of the Virgin and Child were ubiquitous from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries, produced in a wide range of materials and sizes and testifying the overwhelming devotion to th Virgin. Together with the Crucifixion, statues and statuettes of the Virgin and Child were the pricipal objects of devotion in the Christian Church, and vast numbers were made for ecclesisastical, monastic and private worship.

The present Virgin and Child statuette follows the form of the Madonna in the church of SS. Annunziata in Trapani, Sicily. This over-life-size marble statue, stylistically in the mid-fourteenth-century orbit of Nino Pisano, was much venerated; It rapidly gained a reputation for its miraculous properties and by the fifteenth century copies were being made in good numbers by Francesco Laurana and others (Kruft 1970). This copying quickly turned into mass-production in different materials and varying sizes: most of these are in marble or alabaster, but several examples in ivory are known, including a more frontally-posed version in Bolgona (Venturi 1906, fig. 743). It seems likely that the present piece acted in turn as the model for a larger ivory Virgin and Child, also in the V&A (V&A Mus. no: A.550-1910).


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleThe Virgin and Child (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Carved elephant ivory, painted and gilded
Brief description
Statuette, ivory, the Virgin and Child, Italy (Sicily), possibly 15th or early 16th century, after a mid-14th century model
Physical description
The standing Virgin supports the Christ-Child with her left hand and tenderly touches his left hand with her right. He rests his right hand on her chest and looks upwards towards the Virgin. Both the Virgin and the Child have truncated cylinders on their heads: these were intended to hold metal crowns now missing. The Virgin stands on an integrally-carved octagonal pedestal; the ivory moulding at the bottom, however, is made from a separate base plate and a wooden moulding, now largely lost, has been glued to the upper part. The figure is carved in the round.
Dimensions
  • Height: 24.2cm
  • At base width: 6.8cm
Object history
In the possession of John Webb, London, by 1862; purchased from Webb in 1867 (£46).
Subject depicted
Summary
This is an ivory statuette of the Virgin and Child, made in Italy (Sicily), possibly fifteenth or early sixteenth century, after a mid-fourteenth-century model.
Three dimensional images of the Virgin and Child were ubiquitous from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries, produced in a wide range of materials and sizes and testifying the overwhelming devotion to th Virgin. Together with the Crucifixion, statues and statuettes of the Virgin and Child were the pricipal objects of devotion in the Christian Church, and vast numbers were made for ecclesisastical, monastic and private worship.

The present Virgin and Child statuette follows the form of the Madonna in the church of SS. Annunziata in Trapani, Sicily. This over-life-size marble statue, stylistically in the mid-fourteenth-century orbit of Nino Pisano, was much venerated; It rapidly gained a reputation for its miraculous properties and by the fifteenth century copies were being made in good numbers by Francesco Laurana and others (Kruft 1970). This copying quickly turned into mass-production in different materials and varying sizes: most of these are in marble or alabaster, but several examples in ivory are known, including a more frontally-posed version in Bolgona (Venturi 1906, fig. 743). It seems likely that the present piece acted in turn as the model for a larger ivory Virgin and Child, also in the V&A (V&A Mus. no: A.550-1910).
Bibliographic references
  • Inventory of Art Objects acquired in the Year 1867. Inventory of the Objects in the Art Division of the Museum at South Kensington, arranged According to the Dates of their Acquisition. Vol. 1. London : Printed by George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode for H.M.S.O., 1868, p. 12
  • Mata, Maria Anfela Franco. Tres Copias de la "Madonna di Trapani" en el Museo "Camón Aznar". Boletin del Museo e Instituto Camón Aznar. 1986, XXIV, p. 12, fig. 17
  • Venturi, A. Storia dell'arte Italiana. IV, p. 888
  • Pope-Hennessy, John. Catalogue of Italian Sculpture in the Victoria and Albert Museum, 3 vols, London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1964 p. 636
  • Williamson, Paul and Davies, Glyn, Medieval Ivory Carvings, 1200-1550, (in 2 parts), V&A Publishing, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2014 part 1, pp. 70, 71
  • Kruft, H.-W., ‘Die Madonna von Trapani und ihre Kopien. Studien zur Madonnen-Typologie und zum Begriff der Kopie in der sizilainischen Skulptur des Quatrocento’, in: Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, XIV, 1970, p. 320, note 63
  • Maskell, W., A Description of the Ivories Ancient and Medieval in the South Kensington Museum, London, 1872 p. 79
  • Koechlin, R., Les Ivoires gothiques français, 3 vols, Paris, 1924 (reprinted Paris 1968) I, p. 253
  • Williamson, Paul and Davies, Glyn, Medieval Ivory Carvings, 1200-1550, (in 2 parts), V&A Publishing, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2014, part 1, pp. 70, 71, cat. no. 18
Collection
Accession number
208-1867

About this object record

Explore the Collections contains over a million catalogue records, and over half a million images. It is a working database that includes information compiled over the life of the museum. Some of our records may contain offensive and discriminatory language, or reflect outdated ideas, practice and analysis. We are committed to addressing these issues, and to review and update our records accordingly.

You can write to us to suggest improvements to the record.

Suggest feedback

Record createdAugust 19, 2008
Record URL
Download as: JSONIIIF Manifest