Group, marble, of the Virgin of Montserrat with the infant Christ, Spanish (Barcelona), ca. 1600-1620

The enthroned Virgin and Child, each wearing a crown and holding an orb, are shown against a background of the distinctive rocky mountain of Montserrat. The Christ Child, seated cross-legged, raises his right hand in blessing. A procession of pilgrims is depicted wending its way towards the monastery, and elsewhere individual pilgrims, hermits and monks are seen in pathways along the mountainside. Hermitages, wayside chapels and crosses, trees and bushes are scattered over the rocky background. The work is carved in round, and although it is less detailed at the back, it was evidently to be seen from behind as well as from the front. A small image of a bird with a snake in its beak, probably symbolising the triumph of Christian good over evil, is to be seen at the lower left of the Virgin, and an image of a snake and a flower on the lower right almost certainly has a similar connotation. The rim of the integral base is carved at the front with stylised foliage, and lobes; at the back it is plain. It rests on seven (originally eight) squat feet. The marble is hollowed out underneath, so that there is an interior cavity, approximately 8 cm deep, probably to make the piece less heavy and more stable on its feet.

Purchased on 10th June 1870 from Juan Facundo Riaño, through Messrs McCracken for £10.

This is a marble statuette group made in Barcelona, Spain in about 1600-1620. The group represents the Virgin of Montserrat. The cult image of the Virgin of Montserrat, originally dating from the twelfth century, but much restored, is housed in the renovated Monastery of Santa Maria, Montserrat (Barcelona), and has been the object of pilgrimages from at least the fifteenth century to the present day. Although the figures of the Virgin and Child in this group do not resemble that image, the form of the mountain is accurately based on Montserrat, and many analogous compositions of the Virgin are to be seen in engravings, paintings and sculpture, many of which are in the Museum at Montserrat.

291-1870