FRENCH, PROBABLY LORRAINE, 14TH CENTURY | VIRGIN AND CHILD

With Sam Fogg Ltd, London, circa 2010;

distinguished private collection, United Kingdom

This beautiful statue of the Virgin and Child is a particularly fine example and compares with Gothic sculpture made in the Lorraine region of France in the 14th century. The group exhibits the typical sway of 14th-century Gothic Virgins and shows the Mother of God wearing a mantle, Her dress girdled at the waist (a symbol of chastity) and falling in beautiful swallow tail folds to the ground. The Infant Christ rests in Her proper right arm holding a dove, the manifestation of the Holy Spirit. His legs kick playfully and one of His feet is caught in his drapery which falls in layers of attractive swallow tail folds upon His mothers garment.

Compare with the Virgin and Child from central Lorraine, dated to around 1300, in the Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin (inv no. 7689), formerly in the Molinier collection, Paris (published in Schmoll gen. Eisenwerth, op. cit., no. 127). Note the similar arrangement of drapery with dress formed of broad sweeps of folds, the long belt falling down the legs, and the swallow tail folds descending from the bunched drapery at the arm. The broad forehead with elaborate crown is also typical of Lorraine whilst the latter characteristic arguably places the sculpture further into the 14th century. Compare also with the Virgin and Child from the cathedral at St-Dié-des-Vosges (also published in ibid., no. 136). A further comparison is found in the Virgin and Child sold in these rooms on 9 July 2002, lot 14.

RELATED LITERATURE

J. A. Schmoll gen. Eisenwerth, Die Lothringische Skulptur des 14. Jahrhunderts: Ihre Voraussetzungen in der Südchampagne und ihr ausserlothringischen Beziehungen, Petersberg, 2005