Gothic Ivories Project | Statuette; possibly reused as a reliquary (Back)

Seated Virgin and Child; Christ standing on the Virgin's left knee; Christ holding a book in his left hand; Christ touching the back of the Virgin's veil; Virgin holding a book in her right hand; belt; bench.
Inscription in 15th-century Gothic minuscule on the base: 'berchtoldus stromair-osanna uxor eius'.

Koechlin 1924: France, 2nd half of the 14th century.
Berliner 1926: France, 2nd half of the 14th century; base: Germany, 15th century.
Munich 2010: Germany (?), end of the 14th century; base: 15th century.

Attribution
Unknown

Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of gilding and polychromy.
Gilding and polychromy more visible in 1926 (see Berliner 1926): red and gold (Virgin's veil), red (Christ's tunic) and blue (Virgin's cloak), gold (Christ's hair, along the hem of the Virgin's veil).

Reverse
Carved in the round.
Flattened in the back and on the sides (throne) to fit the base.

Object Condition
Missing: crown (probably metal); trimmed on the sides to fit statuette on base (section to the right replaced). Some cracks, especially on the back.

Comments
The base is later than the statuette. According to Berliner, the underside was originally lockable but is now missing the closing part. Holes in the base indicate that it was originally intended for another object, probably a metal statuette.

Provenance
Base (with original art work) donated by Berthold Stromair and his wife Osanna in the 15th century. Collection of Andreas Ulrich Mayr (b. 1732, d. 1802), councillor and chaplain at the court of the Regensburg prince-bishops (Regensburger Fürstbischöflichen Rat und Hofkaplan): his sale, 1803, lot 26; Zentralgemäldegalerie, Munich; transferred from the Königliche Vereinigte Sammlungen to the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich in 1857.

Bibliography
Das Bayerische Nationalmuseum (Munich, 1868), p. 73.
J. von Hefner-Alteneck, Trachten (Frankfurt, 1879), III, pl. 187.
Das Mittelalter. II, Gotische Alterthümer der Baukunst und Bildnerei, by H. Graf, G. Hager and J. A. Mayer (Munich, 1896), VI, no. 1405, pl. VIII.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 22, 230, 244; II, no. 684.
R. Berliner, Die Bildwerke des Bayerischen Nationalmuseums, IV. Die Bildwerke in Elfenbein, Knochen, Hirsch- und Steinbockhorn, mit einem Anhange: Elfenbeinarbeiten der Staatlichen Schlossmuseen in Bayern (Augsburg, 1926), no. 32.
Mittelalterliche Elfenbeinarbeiten: ausgewählte Werke aus den Beständen des Bayerischen Nationalmuseums, ed. by R. Eikelmann, M. Weniger and C. Melzer, exhibition catalogue, Munich, Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, 2010, no. 21.

All images on this website are made available exclusively for scholarly and educational purposes and may not be used commercially.