Standing Virgin and Child; Christ on left arm; Christ in long robe; Virgin holding a fruit (pear) in her right hand; crown; octogonal pedestal.
Molinier 1890: Spain, 15th century.
Venturi 1901-1939: Italy (Pisa), 14th century.
Griggs 1904-1907: France, 14th century.
Koechlin 1924: Italian after a French model, 14th century.
Williamson and Davies 2014: French or Italian; mid-19th century.
Radiocarbon dating produced a date of 1447-1632 with a 95.4% degree of probability, but it is out of the question that this piece falls within that period (Williamson and Davies 2014).
Attribution
Unknown
Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of polychromy and gilding: gold (pattern along the hems, hair), blue (lining of the Virgin's cloak and veil), red (lining of Christ's tunic, lips).
Reverse
Carved in the round.
Rectangular label refers to the lot number of the 1893 Spitzer sale.
Comments
This statuette is modelled after a 14th-century life-size marble figure of the Virgin in Trapani, in Sicily. The present Virgin was probably not intended as a fake, but a copy made in the 19th century for devotional purposes.
The bottom 2 cm of the pedestal is made of a separate section of ivory, glued in place.
The underside has crosshatching.
Provenance
Collection of Frédéric Spitzer (b. 1815, d. 1890), Paris: his sale, Chevallier and Mannheim, Paris, 17 April 1893, lot 146, pl. IV. Collection of George Salting, London: his bequest to the Museum in 1910.
Bibliography
La Collection Spitzer (Paris, 1890), I, no. 111 (E. Molinier).
A. Venturi, Storia dell'Arte Italiana, 11 vols (Milan, 1901-1939), IV, p. 888.
W. Griggs, Portfolio of Ivories [London, 1904-1907], pt. XXIV.
'Salting Bequest (A. 70 to A. 1029-1910)/Murray Bequest (A. 1030 to A. 1096-1910)', in List of Works of Art Acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum (Department of Architecture and Sculpture) (London, 1910), p. 90.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, p. 253 (no. 708A); III, pl. CXV.
M. Longhurst, Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory, Victoria and Albert Museum, 2 vols (London, 1927 and 1929), II (1929), p. 58-59.
J. Pope-Hennessy, assisted by R. Lightbown, Catalogue of Italian Sculpture in the Victoria and Albert Museum, 3 vols (London, 1964), p. 636.
M. A. Franco Mata, 'Tres Copias de la 'Madonna di Trapani' en el Museo 'Camón Aznar'', in Boletín del Museo e Instituto Camón Aznar, XXIV (1986), p. p. 12, fig. 16.
The Making of Sculpture. The Materials and Techniques of European Sculpture, ed. by M. Trusted (London, 2007), p. 177, pl. 329.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), no. 19 (see also no. 18).
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