French, Lorraine, 1st half 14th century

inscribed 845 in red paint on the reverse

There are several losses to the group, including the wings and head of the Holy Ghost, both forearms of God and the arms of Christ and the cross. There is a large pit to the proper left shoulder of God. There are further minor chips and nicks to the surface. Around the edges of the back and in the crevices there are traces of polychromy. Drill holes are visible to the cross near Christ's knees. A nail was added under the feet of the corpus.
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This rare sculptural group with traces of polychromy represents the Holy Trinity according to the iconographic formula known as the Throne of Mercy (thronum gratiae, Hebr 9,5). According to this iconographic scheme, God the Father is shown enthroned holding the Cross onto which his Son is crucified with both hands, and the Holy Spirit is shown as a dove hovering above the cross. Representations of the Throne of Mercy were common in Germany and France since the 12th century and throughout the end of the Middle Ages, with occasional examples even from the Baroque period. It has been convincingly argued that the specific moment shown is a visualisation of God the Father accepting the body of his self-sacrificed Son and offering it for redemption to mankind, as laid out in the words of the Te igitur in the Holy Roman Mass.

The drapery style of this particular example may be compared with seated figures from the Lorraine region of France, such as the fragment of an Enthroned Figure in the Musée Municipale, Metz (around 1320-1330, see Schmoll gen. Eisenwerth, no. 208). The facial expression and undulating hair are similar to the figures of the High Priest in the  reliefs showing the Presentation in the Temple from the High Altar in Cologne, now in the local Schnütgenmuseum (c. 1310-ante 1322, see Schmoll gen. Eisenwerth, no. 377)  and in the Treasury of the Cathedral of Verdun (around 1320-1330, see Schmoll gen. Eisenwerth, no. 240). It also compares particularly well to the Throne of Mercy in the parish Church of St-Pierre-ès-Liens in Mussy-sur-Seine (Aube), which similarly retains some of its original polychromy.

RELATED LITERATURE
G. Neumann, Die Ikonographie des Gnadenstuhls, Ph.D. diss., Berlin 1953; J.A. Schmoll gen. Eisenwerth, Die lothringische Skulptur des 14. Jahrhunderts. Ihre Voraussetzungen in der Südchampagne und ihre außerlothringischen Beziehungen, Petersberg, 2005