Seated Virgin and Child; Christ seated on the Virgin's left knee; Virgin holding a fruit in her right hand; Christ in long robe; Christ with hands raised; Virgin with her left foot on a cushion; brooch; bench decorated with blind arches, a row of pierced quatrefoils and a band of rosettes.
Koechlin 1906: French, early 14th century.
Koechlin 1924: France, end of 13th or early 14th century.
Natanson 1951: French, c. 1300.
Gaborit-Chopin 1978: Paris, c. 1250-1260.
Attribution
Unknown
Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of gilding and polychromy: gold (hair; patterns along the hems); red (belt); black? (quatrefoil pattern on the cushion).
Reverse
Carved in the round. Bench decorated with blind arches, a row of pierced quatrefoils and a band of rosettes.
Two labels inside of the statuette: one showing a saint Martin under a crown and the other with the incription 'E.U. 1900/M Martin Le Roy'.
Object Condition
The head of Christ became detached and has been glued back into place.
Right hand of Christ repaired.
Missing: two fingers on Christ's left hand.
Comments
On a velvet-covered base, with collection label: a crowned RG on the bottom.
Provenance
Said to have come from the abbey of Saint-Michel de Frigolet (Bouches-du-Rhône) during the French Revolution. Bligny collection (from 1882). Collection of Victor Martin Le Roy, Neuilly-sur-Seine (before 1900). Collection of Jean-Joseph Marquet de Vasselot and heirs: sale, Christie's, Paris, Wednesday 16 November 2011, lot 20; private collection, Toronto.
Head of Christ: Carrand collection (until 1883 when it was put back into place).
Bibliography
Exposition rétrospective de Rouen, 1884.
R. de Lasteyrie, 'Vierge en ivoire de la collection Bligny', in Gazette archéologique (1884), p. 300, pl. 40.
L. de Farcy, 'Une heure à L'Exposition rétrospective de Rouen', in Revue de l'art chrétien (1885), p. 72.
Exposition Universelle de 1900, Catalogue illustré Officiel de l'Exposition Rétrospective de l'Art Français (Paris, 1900), no. 84.
G. Migeon, Exposition rétrospective de l'art français (Paris, 1900), book III, no. 84.
G. Migeon, La Collection Martin le Roy, in Les Arts 10 (November 1902), p. 3.
R. Koechlin, Catalogue raisonné de la collection Martin Le Roy, Fasc. II: Ivoires et sculptures (Paris, 1906), no. 20, pl. XI.
O. Pelka, Elfenbein (Berlin, 1920), p. 173.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 102, 149; II, no. 83; III, pl. XXVIII.
L. Grodecki, Ivoires français (Paris, 1947), pp. 87-88.
J. Natanson, Gothic Ivories of the 13th and 14th Centuries (London, 1951), p. 35, fig. 25.
M.-E. Henneau, A. Lemeunier, La Vierge dans l'art hutois, exhibition catalogue, Huy, 1973, no. 10.
M. Seidel, 'Die Elfenbeinmadonna im Domschatz zu Pisa', in Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institut in Florenz, 16 (1972), pp. 1-50.
D. Gaborit-Chopin, Ivoires du Moyen Age (Freiburg, 1978), no. and fig. 203, pp. 137-139, 205.
L'art au temps des rois maudits: Philippe le Bel et ses fils (1285-1328), exhibition catalogue, Paris, Grand Palais, 1998, pp. 172-174.
C. T. Little , ‘The Art of Gothic Ivories: Studies at the Crossroads,’ in The Sculpture Journal 23.1 (2014), pp. 13-29, fig. 3.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), p. 53, in relation to no. 11.
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