The Virgin and Child
Statuette
15th century to early 16th century (made)
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).
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 | |
| Title | The 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 |
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| 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 |
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| Collection | |
| Accession number | 208-1867 |
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| Record created | August 19, 2008 |
| Record URL |
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