1000 - Nordfrankreich um 1325-1350

Nordfrankreich um 1325-1350 Northern France around 1325-1350 A highly significant museum-quality limestone sculpture of the Virgin Mary Remains of an older polychromy.. A fully sculpted pillar figure of the Madonna holding the Child, with the back only slightly flattened. Standing in an elegant contrapposto pose, she holds a lost attribute (a lily?) in her lowered hand, whilst in her right hand she holds the Baby Jesus, who in turn is spreading the wings of a dove. A tip of the rear lily crown reattached. Height 103 cm. Provenance Lempertz auction 432 on 22 May 1951, lot 249. South German private collection. Literature Cf. P. Vitry/G. Brière: Documents de sculpture française du Moyen-Âge, Paris 1904, pl. LXXXXIIIff. - Cf. P. Williamson: The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection. Medieval Sculpture and works of art, London 1987, cat. no. 6, a slightly earlier Virgin and Child with a dove, additionally Moses and the burning bush on the plinth. - Cf. Exh.-cat. Caen/Toulouse 2008: Chefs-d'œuvre du Gothique en Normandie, Sculpture et orfèvrerie du XIIIe au XVe siècle, Caen-Milan 2008, ill. 4, the Virgin from Pont-de-l'Arche (Eure), no. 11, the Virgin from Saint-Martin in Lisors (Eure), no. 17, the Virgin from Saint-Sulpice in Guéhébert (Manche). This French statue of the Virgin and Child is in a wonderful state of preservation. It did not fall victim to secularisation and has never been broken; even its crown of lilies survived the turbulent times of the Revolution unscathed. It embodies the High Gothic ideal of beauty, which later generations evidently recognised and respected: A slender young woman with a round face, high forehead, almond-shaped eyes, an empathetic gaze, a classically straight nose and a sensual mouth. Her loose, curly hair is covered at the back by a veil. The close-fitting red dress falls in L-shaped folds to the tips of her shoes, which are just barely visible. The blue cloak is draped from the right arm in deep arcs towards the left, where it falls beneath the child in staggered vertical folds. This arrangement of the garments emphasises the S-curve of her posture and directs the viewer’s gaze towards the child, who is presented slightly raised above her supporting leg. A similar, though larger, Virgin and Child is held in the collection of the Musée du Louvre (RF 880). Since 1904, it has been assumed that it originates from the Abbey of Cîteaux (Côte-d’Or, Burgundy), although there is no written evidence to support this. She stands in the same pose with the broken staff to her right; to her left is the Child, clad only in draped cloth, but also holding a dove. The origins of other similar sculptures and fragments that have survived are thought to lie within a wider area centred on Île-de-France, stretching from Rouen via Amiens, Laon, Reims and Troyes to Burgundy.