GERMAN, COLOGNE, SECOND QUARTER 14TH CENTURY | VIRGIN AND CHILD

Lempertz, Cologne, 10 November 1982, lot 1739;

Dr. Gustav Rau (1922-2002);

his posthumous sale for UNICEF, Lempertz, Cologne, 16 November 2013, lot 1355

On loan to the Schnütgen Museum, Cologne, 2009-2012

This serene Virgin is a rare survival that can be associated with the marble statuettes carved for the high altar of Cologne Cathedral between 1310 and 1322. Now housed primarily in the Schnütgen Museum, Cologne, these statuettes are thought to be the work of sculptors under Lorrainese influence, displaying the distinctive Gothic style that prevailed in France around this time. In terms of style, scale, as well as the use of white marble - a rare material in the region - the present Virgin compares so closely with the Cologne statuettes as to suggest that it was made by a dependent workshop as part of a similar commission. The Virgin's contrapposto pose and drapery scheme find a further comparison in the large-scale limestone Virgin 'from the Tongersches Haus', now in the Schnütgen Museum, which was made in Cologne around 1330. What particularly distinguishes the present marble is the sophisticated Passion symbolism seen in the Christ Child, which is depicted with a bird and holding up his foot.

RELATED LITERATURE

Rhein und Maas: Kunst und Kultur 800-1400, exh. cat. Cologne and Brussels, Cologne, 1972, pp. 371-376; L. Becks, K. Hardering et al., Zurückgewonnen für den Kölner Dom: Die heilige Katharina vom Hochaltar und ein Pleurant vom Grabmal des Erzbischofs Wilhelm von Gennep, Cologne, 2008