Gothic Ivories Project | Statuette; Moussac Virgin and Child (Vierge à l'enfant de Moussac) (Front)

Seated Virgin and Child (Sedes Sapientiae); Christ seated on the Virgin's left knee; Christ seated frontally; Christ in long robe; Christ holding a roll in his left hand; Christ making a blessing gesture; crown.

Koechlin 1924: France, 2nd quarter of the 13th century.
Natanson 1951: French, c. 1230-1250.
Gaborit-Chopin 1978: France, early 13th century.
Sandron 1993: Northern France, Mosan (Reims, Chartres), c. 1220-1230.
Holbert 1997-1998: French, early 13th century.
Museum's opinion 2010: North French (Mosan), early 13th century.
Saint-Omer and Paris 2013: Liège (?), c. 1220-1230.

Attribution
Unknown

Polychromy - Gilding
Several layers, the most recent one being 19th century (see Cascio and Levy in Sandron 1993, p. 56 for more details).

Reverse
Carved in the round, but to a lesser extent on the back.

Object Condition
Missing: right hand of the Virgin; fingers on the right hand of Christ. Base partly broken.

Provenance
Collection of Alexandre Du Sommerard: acquired for the museum in 1843.

Bibliography
E. Du Sommerard, Catalogue et description des antiquités et objets d'art exposés au musée de Cluny (Paris, 1883), no. 1037.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 50-51; II, no. 8; III, pl. III.
J. Natanson, Gothic Ivories of the 13th and 14th Centuries (London, 1951), pp. 14-15, 32, fig. 3.
D. Gaborit-Chopin, Ivoires du Moyen Age (Freiburg, 1978), p. 134.
D. Sandron, 'La Sculpture en ivoire au début du XIIIe siècle: d'un monde à l'autre', in Revue de l'Art, 102 (1993), pp. 48-59 (p. 48, figs 3-4).
A. Erlande-Brandenburg, P.-Y. Le Pogam, D. Sandron, Musée national du Moyen âge-Thermes de Cluny: guide des collections (Paris, 1993), no. 152, pp. 127-128.
K. Holbert, 'The Vindication of a Controversial Early Thirteenth-Century Vierge ouvrante in the Walters Art Gallery', in Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 55-56 (1997-1998), pp. 101-121, fig. 6.
Une renaissance. L'art entre Flandre et Champagne, 1150-1250, exhibition catalogue, Saint-Omer, Musée de l'Hôtel Sandelin, 5 April-30 June 2013 and Paris, Musée de Cluny, 17 April-15 July 2013, no. 104 (C. Descatoire).

© Réunion des musées nationaux - Jean-Gilles Berizzi.
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