VIRGIN AND CHILD AND SANTA MICHAEL OMBRIAN SCHOOL,... Lot 15

VIRGIN AND CHILD AND SANTA MICHAEL OMBRIAN SCHOOL, SECOND HALF OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY painting on panel 58 x 45 cm This panel, which depicts the Virgin and Child with San Michele, is rich in symbolic detail. Mary's refined hairstyle corresponds to the canons of the second half of the Quattrocento, illustrated in particular by the famous portraitist Domenico Ghirlandaio (Florence, 1448-1494), whose Madonna and Child is in a private collection (fig. 1). Her hair is similarly wrapped around a light cloth lined with a transparent veil that falls over her forehead. Here, however, the cloth against which she is leaning seems to be floating in the air, against a landscape background. The painter has ostensibly marked the folds, as Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) did for the tablecloth covering the table in The Last Supper (Milan, Santa Maria delle Grazie, refectory fresco, completed in 1498). An obvious Eucharistic symbol, this detail evokes the altar cloths and the sacrifice of Christ to come. His mother is holding Jesus in a standing position on a parapet that breaks off halfway down the wall and forms a table, an altar table as in the scenes of the Presentation in the Temple. He himself is holding a rose in his hand, the thorns of which prefigure the crown of the Passion. The coral necklace of the Child adds a touch of fantasy to the sacred work. This motif, first seen in Siena in 1335, quickly spread to Florence, then to Umbria and the Marches, where it remained in favour until the beginning of the 16th century. It echoes an ancient practice, attested in the 13th century. While the future pope John XXI (1267-1277) was still in the service of his predecessor, he would have pointed out to him that as long as there was coral at home he was protected from evil. The prophylactic virtues of the red cnidarian were known and a branch of it was put, as here, around the neck of little boys or, to a lesser extent, little girls, to protect them from the desire they provoked in certain ill-intentioned people...