Attribution
Unknown

Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of gilding, especially along the hem of the Virgin's cloak and in the hair (gold laid on a thick red-orange base). Traces of polychromy: blue (lapis lazuli), green, garance red (eyes, lips, belt).
See B. Guineau, 'Etude des couleurs dans la polychromie des ivoires médiévaux', in Bulletin de la Société nationale des antiquaires de France (1996), pp. 188-210.
A. Cascio and J. Levy, Etude sur la polychromie des ivoires gothiques du Louvre (unpublished report, 1997).
A. Cascio and J. Levy, 'Les ivoires peints. La polychromie des statuettes d'ivoire' (introd. by D. Gaborit-Chopin), in Coré, 5 (1998), pp. 5-20.

Reverse
Carved in the round.

Object Condition
Ivory cracked.
Missing: crown (hole in the head of the Virgin for an original crown).
Fingers on the left hand of Christ are broken but still in place.
Traces of original brooches on the chest of the Virgin and Child (hidden under modern glass brooches).
Hole under the base for the pulp cavity.

Comments
The Virgin originally wore a gilt silver crown (14th century inventories). In the 14th century, she was placed on a gilt silver base, decorated with enamelled fleur-de-lys and supported by five small lions. Her silver crown was replaced by a gold crown set with pearls, ruby and emeralds. A brooch in the shape of a gold flower with an emerald at its centre was set on her chest, and a gold ring with an emerald was placed on her middle finger (this ring was lost by the time of the 1480 inventory). A brooch was also placed on the Child's chest, with an agate cameo sculpted with the head of a child. The statuette lost its jewelled decoration some time between 1794 and 1797. See Gaborit-Chopin, 2003 for more details and transcriptions of the inventories.

Provenance
Belonged to the treasury of the royal chapel in Paris where it is cited for the first time in an inventory drawn before 1279-1285 (between 1268 and 1285), and regularly in later inventories (c. 1335-1336, 1341, 1363, 1368-1377, 1377, 1480, 1573-1575) where it remained until 1790. Given to 'M. Gabriel Francois Doyen, peintre du Roy... pour le placer au dépôt des Petits-Augustins' (1791 inventory). Alexandre Lenoir collection: acquired from Duval in 1797 for 500 francs, and yet still mentioned in the catalogue of the Musée des Monuments français (no. 90); sold 11 December 1837, lot 193; Debruge-Duménil collection, 1837-1850 (no. 146): sold Paris, January-March 1849, lot 146; Alexis Soltykoff collection, 1850-1861: sold Paris, 8 April 1861 and following days, lot 225; acquired in 1861 by the Musée du Louvre for 15 200 francs.

Bibliography
A. Lenoir, Description historique et chronologique des monumens français, Paris, an V (1797), no 90 ; idem, an VI (1798), no 90 ; idem, an X (1802), no 90, p. 177 ; an XI (1803), no 76 ; idem, 1810, no 76.
J. Labarte, Description des objets d'art qui composent la collection Debruge-Duménil (Paris, 1847), no. 146, pp. 452-453.
F. Séré and P. Lacroix, Le Moyen-Age et la Renaissance, 5 vols, (Paris, 1848-1861), II (1849), with reproductions.
A. Darcel, 'La collection Soltykoff', in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, I (1861), p. 176.
A. Sauzay, Musée de la Renaissance [Musée du Louvre]. Notice des ivoires (Paris, 1863), no. 3.
J. Labarte, Histoire des arts industriels au Moyen Âge et à l'époque de la Renaissance, I (Paris, 1882), pl. XVI.
A. Lenoir, Inventaire de richesses d'art de la France. Archives du musée des Monuments francais, Paris, I (1883), p. 17; II (1886), p.p 99, 100, 169-204.
L. Gonse, L'Art gothique : l'architecture, la peinture, la sculpture, le décor (Paris, 1890), reproduction opp. p. 254.
E. Molinier, 'Un groupe en ivoire du musée du Louvre. Le Couronnement de la Vierge', in Gazette des Beaux-Arts (November 1895), pp. 397-400.
E. Molinier, Histoire générale des Arts appliqués à l'Industrie. I: Les Ivoires (Paris, 1896), pl. XVII.
E. Molinier, Musée National du Louvre. Catalogue des ivoires, (Paris, 1896), no. 53.
A. Vidier, 'Le trésor de la Sainte-Chapelle. Inventaires et documents, Paris', extract from Mémoires de la Société de l'histoire de Paris et de l'Île-de-France, XXXIV-XXXVII, 1911.
O. Pelka, Elfenbein (Berlin, 1920), fig. 117.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 22, 36, 93, 104; II, no. 95; III, pl. XXXI.
L. Grodecki, Ivoires français (Paris, 1947), pp. 72, 88, pl. XXVI.
J. Natanson, Gothic Ivories of the 13th and 14th Centuries (London, 1951), p. 34, fig. 24.
W. D. Wixom, Treasures of Medieval France, exhibition catalogue, Cleveland, The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1967.
S.-J. Morand, Histoire de la Sainte-Chapelle royale du palais, enrichie de planches (Paris, 1790), p. 53.
D. Kimpel, Die Querhausarme der N. D. zu Paris und ihre Skulpturen (Bonn, 1971).
R. Suckale, Studien zu Stilbildung und Stilwandel der Madonnenstatuen der Ile-de-France zwischen 1230 und 1300 (Munich, 1971), pp. 109-111, 141, fig. 8.
W. Sauerländer, La Sculpture gothique en France, 1140-1270 (Paris, 1972), p. 173.
M. Seidel, Die Elfenbeinmadonna im Domschatz zu Pisa, Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, XVI (1972).
D. Gaborit-Chopin, Ivoires du Moyen Age (Freiburg, 1978), no. and fig. 198, 199, pp. 136-139.
R. H. Randall, Masterpieces of Ivory from the Walters Art Gallery (New York, 1985), p. 183, fig. 43.
D. Gaborit-Chopin, La Vierge de la Sainte-Chapelle. Feuillets. Musée du Louvre, no. 606 (Paris, 1990)
J. M. Léniaud and Fr. Pérot, La Sainte-Chapelle (Paris, 1991), p. 60.
D. Gaborit-Chopin, 'Les ivoires gothiques français', in Louvre. Trésors du Moyen Age. Dossier de l'art, no. 16 (December 1993-January 1994), p. 36, fig. p. 34.
E. Bertrand, Brimo de Laroussilhe. Un chef-d'oeuvre reconsidéré: une exceptionelle Vierge parisienne en ivoire du milieu du XIIIe siècle (Paris, 1994).
P. Williamson, Gothic Sculpture, 1140-1300 (London, 1995), p. 150.
B. Guineau, Etudes des couleurs dans la polychromie des ivoires médiévaux, BSNAF, 1996.
A. Cascio, J. Levy, Les ivoires peints. Le polychromie des statuettes d'ivoire, Coré, 5, 1998.
Meisterwerke aus Elfenbein der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin, exhibition catalogue, Darmstadt, Hessisches Landesmuseum and Munich, Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, 1999, pp. 95-96 (with fig.).
D. Gaborit-Chopin, Ivoires médiévaux, Ve-XVe siècle (Paris: Musée du Louvre, 2003), no. 100.
S. Guérin, 'An ivory Virgin at the Metropolitan Museum, New York, in a Gothic sculptor's oeuvre', in The Burlington Magazine 1311, Vol. CLIV (June 2012), pp. 394-402, (p. 396 & 400, fig. 12).
Danielle Gaborit-Chopin, 'Documents et œuvres d'art: remarques sur quelques ivoires gothiques français', Cahiers Archeologiques, vol. 55, 2014, p. 122, pl. 2.