Seated Virgin and Child (Sedes sapientiae); Virgin holding Christ's foot in her right hand; Christ raising his robe above his left knee.
Koechlin 1924: France, 2nd half of 13th century.
Lowden 2008 and Museum's opinion 2008: Meuse Valley (Liège?), c. 1250.
Attribution
Unknown
Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of polychromy and extensive gilding, especially on the Virgin's cloak, decorated with an overall gilded pattern.
Reverse
Flat and smooth. Holes.
Object Condition
Signs of frequent handling have polished the back of the object.
Comments
Four small holes on the back of the statuette and in the throne on either side indicate that the ivory was once mounted, probably in a tabernacle (Lowden, 2008).
Provenance
De Meyer collection, Bruges. Martin Le Roy collection, Neuilly-sur-Seine. J. Marquet de Vasselot, Paris. Thomson collection, Toronto: bought, Sotheby's, New York, 29 January 1999, lot 50; since 2008, The Thomson Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), Toronto.
Bibliography
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, p. 99; II, no. 63; III, pl. XXV.
R. Suckale, Studien zu Stilbildung und Stilwandel der Madonnenstatuen der Ile-de-France zwischen 1230 und 1300 (Munich, 1971), esp. pp. 88-89.
D. Sandron, 'La Sculpture en ivoire au début du XIIIe siècle: d'un monde à l'autre', in Revue de l'Art, 102 (1993), pp. 48-59, esp. pp. 53-56, fig. 17.
Musée du Louvre, Nouvelles acquisitions 1980-1984 (Paris, 1985), pp. 27-28, fig. 3.
J. Cherry, J. Lowden, Medieval Ivories and Works of Art: The Thomson Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto, 2008), cat. 13.
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