Seated Virgin and Child; Christ in long robe; Christ standing on the Virgin's left knee; Christ holding a fruit in his left hand; Virgin holding a closed book in her right hand; bench decorated with arches on the sides.
Koechlin 1924: France, last third of the 13th century.
Longhurst 1929: France, 2nd half of the 13th century.
Williamson and Davies 2014: probably Spain (Burgos or León), c. 1270-1300.
Attribution
Unknown
Reverse
Carved in the round, except for the bench, which is curved and smooth, with a hole (possibly for a relic). Ring of glue below the hole indicating the presence of a now lost circular label.
Object Condition
Missing: right hand of Christ; upper part of the Virgin's head and crown.
Probably because of an attempt to drill into the Virgin's head to secure a crown, the front half including the face broke away and was glued back into place.
A circular plug of ivory has been inserted into the head of Christ, filling up a hole which was probably used to secure a crown.
Small repairs of ivory to the base and left foot of Virgin. Hole in the back of the throne.
Comments
Underside: crosshatching and three dowel holes (a larger central one and two smaller ones flanking it) for adhesion to a separate base.
Provenance
In the possession of John Webb (b. 1799, d. 1880), London, by 1862: purchased from him by the Museum in 1867.
Bibliography
Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Works of Art of the Mediaeval, Renaissance, and more recent periods on loan at the South Kensington Museum, June 1862..., revised edition, exhibition catalogue (London, 1863), no. 98.
Inventory of the Objects in the Art Division of the Museum at South Kensington, arranged according to the dates of their acquisition (London, 1868), I, p. 12.
W. Maskell, Ivories Ancient and Mediaeval in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1872), no. 207-67.
A. Michel, L'histoire de l'art depuis les premiers temps chrétiens jusqu'à nos jours, 8 vols, 17 parts (Paris, 1905-1929), I, p. 502.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, p. 99; II, no. 65.
M. Longhurst, Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory, Victoria and Albert Museum, 2 vols (London, 1927 and 1929), II (1929), p. 29, pl. XXVI.
B. I. Gilman, Catalogue of Sculpture in the Collection of the Hispanic Society of America (New York, 1932), p. 47.
C. R. Morey, ‘A Group of Gothic Ivories in the Walters Art Gallery’, Art Bulletin, Vol. 18 (1936), p. 76.
M. C. Ross, 'An Ivory Statuette', in Parnassus, X, no. 6 (1938), pp. 24-25.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), no. 4.
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