Seated Virgin and Child; tender gesture of Christ touching with his left hand the Virgin's chin; Virgin holding a flower in her right hand; bird perched on the flower; Christ standing on the Virgin's right knee; Christ in long robe.
Inscription along the base: 'AVE:MARIA:GR[ATI]A:PLE[NA]'.
Koechlin 1924: France, mid 14th century.
KIK/IRPA database 2010: France, c. 1340-1360.
Bruges 2010: Paris, c. 1320-1340.
Attribution
Unknown
Polychromy - Gilding
Extensive traces of gilding and polychromy (only partly original): green and red (lining), pink (skin), gold (along the hems; inscription; hair).
Reverse
Curved, with crosshatching in the lower part of the piece. Blue and white label with inscription: 'Hospices civiles Bruges'.
Object Condition
Missing: upper part of the Virgin's head (originally crowned with ivory or metal crown). Upper surface of the head as some crosshatching, as well as the underside of the piece.
Comments
This piece originally was at the centre of a triptych or polyptych.
Bibliography
Exposition rétrospective, Ghent, 1913.
P. Bergmans, J. Casier, L'Art ancien dans les Flandres. Mémorial de l'Exposition rétrospective organisée à Gand en 1913, 3 vols, (Bruxelles and Paris, 1914), vol. I., no. 16, pl. VIII.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, p. 240; II, no. 646.
KIK/IRPA database: http://www.kikirpa.be/www2/wwwopac/en/object.html [accessed October 2009].
S. Vandenberghe, Ivory in Bruges: Treasures from museums, churches and monasteries, exhibition catalogue, Bruges, 2010, pp. 8-9.
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