Seated Virgin and Child; Christ in long robe; Christ standing on the Virgin's left knee; Virgin holding a flower in her right hand; Virgin trampling a monster (in the form of a dolphin) under her left foot.
Randall 1993: French (Seine Inférieure or Normandy), last quarter of the 13th century.
Attribution
Unknown
Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of polychromy and gilding including a Kufic inscription on the Virgin's collar, a gilt brooch, decoration along the hems and details on the dolphin.
Reverse
Carved in the round.
Object Condition
Missing: left forearm of Christ; crown of the Virgin (restored), head and right arm of Christ (restored).
Provenance
M. D. Schevitch collection, Paris: sold, Schevitch sale, Georges Petit, Paris, 4-7 April 1906, lot 150. Collection of Baron Robert de Rothschild, Paris. Rosenberg & Stiebel, New York. Bought in 1964 (Founders Society purchase, General Membership Fund).
Bibliography
A. Moskowitz, 'A Madonna and Child Statue: Reversing a Reattribution', in Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts, 61, no. 4 (1984), p. 42, fig. 13.
R. H. Randall, The Golden Age of Ivory: Gothic Ivory Carvings in North American Collections (New York, 1993), no. 4.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), p. 53, in relation to no. 11.
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