The Virgin and Child thumbnail 1
The Virgin and Child thumbnail 2
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Image of Gallery in South Kensington
Not currently on display at the V&A
On short term loan out for exhibition

This object consists of 3 parts, some of which may be located elsewhere.

The Virgin and Child

Relief
ca. 1520 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This relief, probably made by Gregor Erhart, depicts the standing Virgin and Child on a crescent moon in a vaulted hall. Four supporting pilasters, richly decorated with raised foliage frame a centralized Italianate hall beneath a semicircular vault.

In the early 16th century in Augsburg and Nuremberg a taste for Italianate styles was becoming common. The foundry of the Vischers in Nuremberg completed the tomb of St Sebaldus in 1519 with figures from classical mythology in the new style, called "Newe Fatzon". Because of the size of the Fugger chapel in Augsburg, completed in 1518 (the first building in Renaissance style in Germany) several sculptors, including Sebastian Loscher and Hans Daucher, were required to complete the commission. The common material in Augsburg for reliefs and sculpture in the round was the soft Solnhofen stone, similar in colour to marble. This relief is attributed to Gregor Erhart, trained in the wood carving tradition in his home city of Ulm, who moved to Augsburg in 1494. Erhart's choice of a classical architectural setting is derived from an engraving of 1508 by Hans Burgkmair, who probably visited Italy the year before. The Virgin however is still carved in the late gothic manner.

The present relief, probably a single object, was made for private devotion or formed part of a small altarpiece.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Parts
This object consists of 3 parts.
(Some alternative part names are also shown below)
  • Relief
  • Panel
  • Frame
  • Base
TitleThe Virgin and Child (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Solnhofen limestone carved in low relief
Brief description
Panel relief, the Virgin and Child, Solnhofen limestone, attributed to Gregor Erhart, Germany, Augsburg, ca. 1520
Physical description
Relief depicts the standing Virgin and child on a crescent moon in a vaulted hall. Four supporting pilasters, richly decorated with raised foliage frame a centralized Italianate hall beneath a semicircular vault. The crowned Virgin wears a fur-lined gown beneath a mantle, and holds the naked Christ Child in her arms. She gently inclines her head towards the child, while his right arm is around her neck.
Dimensions
  • Height: 43.3cm
  • Width: 31.7cm
  • Depth: 4.4cm
Measured for the Medieval and Renaissance Galleries
Gallery label
  • In the early 16th century in Augsburg and Nuremberg a taste for Italianate styles was becoming common. The foundry of the Vischers in Nuremberg completed the tomb of St Sebaldus in 1519 with figures from classical mythology in the new style, called "Newe Fatzon". Because of the size of the Fugger chapel in Augsburg, completed in 1518 (the first building in Renaissance style in Germany) several sculptors, including Sebastian Loscher and Hans Daucher, were required to complete the commission. The common material in Augsburg for reliefs and sculpture in the round was the soft Solnhofen stone, similar in colour to marble. This relief is attributed to Gregor Erhart, trained in the wood carving tradition in his home city of Ulm, who moved to Augsburg in 1494. Erhart's choice of a classical architectural setting is derived from an engraving of 1508 by Hans Burgkmair, who probably visited Italy the year before. The Virgin however is still carved in the late gothic manner.(1993)
  • THE VIRGIN AND CHILD Honestone By Hans Daucher (b.ca.1485; d.1538) German; second quarter of the 16th century
Object history
Bought from the Soltikoff Collection, £62.
Subject depicted
Summary
This relief, probably made by Gregor Erhart, depicts the standing Virgin and Child on a crescent moon in a vaulted hall. Four supporting pilasters, richly decorated with raised foliage frame a centralized Italianate hall beneath a semicircular vault.

In the early 16th century in Augsburg and Nuremberg a taste for Italianate styles was becoming common. The foundry of the Vischers in Nuremberg completed the tomb of St Sebaldus in 1519 with figures from classical mythology in the new style, called "Newe Fatzon". Because of the size of the Fugger chapel in Augsburg, completed in 1518 (the first building in Renaissance style in Germany) several sculptors, including Sebastian Loscher and Hans Daucher, were required to complete the commission. The common material in Augsburg for reliefs and sculpture in the round was the soft Solnhofen stone, similar in colour to marble. This relief is attributed to Gregor Erhart, trained in the wood carving tradition in his home city of Ulm, who moved to Augsburg in 1494. Erhart's choice of a classical architectural setting is derived from an engraving of 1508 by Hans Burgkmair, who probably visited Italy the year before. The Virgin however is still carved in the late gothic manner.

The present relief, probably a single object, was made for private devotion or formed part of a small altarpiece.
Bibliographic references
  • 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. 15
  • Baxandall, Michael. South German Sculpture, 1480-1530. VAM, London, 1974, p. 74, no. 20.
  • T. Eser. Hans Daucher. Berlin, 1996, p. 317, fig 97
  • Barnet, Peter. 'Late Gothic Wood Sculptures from Ulm'. In: Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts, Vol. 64, No. 4, 1989, pp. 29-39
  • Jopek, Norbert. German Sculpture 1430-1540, A Catalogue of the Collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum. London, 2002, pp. 86-87, cat.no. 37.
  • Williamson, Paul, ed. European Sculpture at the Victoria and Albert Museum. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1996, pp. 126-7
  • Diemer, Dorothea Hubert Gerhard und Carlo di Cesare del Palagio. Berlin: 2004. Vol 1, pp 73-82, Vol. 2, pp 141-142
  • Penny, N. Catalogue of European Sculpture in the Ashmolean Museum. Oxford: 1992. Vol II, p 132
  • Fabianski, M. Spranger and Italian painting. Apollo, March 1995, p 20
  • Baker, M. Limewood, Chiromancy and Narratives of Making. Writing about the materials and processes of sculpture. Art History, Vol II, No. 4, pp 503-4
  • Eikelmann, Renate ed., Bella Figura Europäische Bronzekunst in Suddeutschland um 1600, Munich: 2015, exh. cat., pp.258-261
  • Satzinger, Georg and Schütze, Sebastian, Der Göttliche. Hommage an Michelangelo, Bonn: Bundeskunsthalle, 2015, exh. cat., p. 192, fig. 1
  • Baier, Helmut, Rolf Biedermann, Bruno Bushart, Josef Bellot, Heinrich Geissler, John F. Hayward, Volker Himmelein, Georg Himmelheber, Hermann Kellenbenz, Gode Krämer, Norbert Lieb, Kurt Löcher, Heinrich Lutz, John Henry van der Meer, Hannelore Müller, Peter Rummel, Alfred Schädler, Winfried Schulze, Horst H. Stierhof, Bruno Thomas, Hans R. Weihrauch, Leonie von Wilckens, Wolfgang Zorn, Welt im Umbruch: Augsburg zwischen Renaissance und Barock (3 volumes), Augsburg: Augsburger Druck- und Verlagshaus, 1980.
  • Messling, Guido and Jochen Sander, eds. Renaissance in the North: Holbein, Burgkmair, and the Age of the Fuggers. Frankfurt: Städel Museum, 2023, pp. 154-155, cat. no. 37.
Collection
Accession number
7957-1862

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Record createdOctober 16, 2008
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