Inv. 1573 (inv. Soprintendenza 256)
Seated Virgin and Child; Christ standing on the Virgin's left knee; Christ in long robe; Christ holding a fruit in his left hand; bench.
Naples 1981: Champagne (?), 1st quarter of the 14th century.
Attribution
Unknown
Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of polychromy and gilding: red (lips, shoes, lining of cloak, cheeks), gold (cloak, robe of the Virgin, around the neck of Christ¿s robe, hair, etc.), black (painted pupils), green (ground).
Reverse
Carved in the round. Labels with current inventory numbers. Crosshatching on the bottom.
Object Condition
Missing: crown (metal).
The statuette is made of three pieces of ivory: one large one and two smaller ones (one for the right forearm of the Virgin, and one for the right forearm of Christ). These have been very skilfully integrated. Holes to attach a missing crown.
Several deep cracks.
Provenance
Collection of Placido de Sangro, Duke of Martina (b. 1829, d. 1891) (collection assembled in the 2nd half of the 19th century): given by his heirs to the city of Naples in 1911; housed at the Villa Floridiana since 1931.
Bibliography
A. O. Quintavalle, 'Medioevo ignorato. Avori gotici nelle pubbliche collezioni napoletane', in Crisopoli (1934), pp. 113-114, fig. 3.
M. Ishinabe, 'La Maestà di Simone Martini e la diffusione del bambino stante e benedicente nell'arte italiana', in Antichità viva, I (1980), p. 13, n. 12.
Medioevo e produzione artistica di serie. Smalti di Limoges e avori gotici in Campania, ed. by P. Giusti, P. Leone de Castris, exhibition catalogue, Naples, Museo Duca di Martina, 1981, no. II.2.
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