CHAMPAGNE CROWNED VIRGIN WITH CHILD, C. 1500 Polychromed... Lot 25

CHAMPAGNE CROWNED VIRGIN WITH CHILD, C. 1500 Polychromed limestone H. 126 cm, W. 55 cm, D. 33 cm Small restorations This Champagne crowned Virgin comes out of the expected canons of slender and smiling young mothers, playing with their Son. Ours, with its full face, made melancholic by its miclos eyes, presents the Child whose sacrifice we sense. Dressed in a white shirt held to the collar by a cord, he plays with a goldfinch. Mary's rich attire contrasts with the treatment of her hair mass in fine undulating locks. Her hairstyle is reminiscent of that of Mary Magdalene in the Neutelings collection, whose ample cloak, however, is decorated only with a roughly worked braid (Fig. 1). She differs from the latter by a particular implantation of the hair, which forms a heart on the forehead. This detail can be found in the Virgin of the Annunciation by Coussegrey, whose simple attire is in no way comparable to the luxurious fabrics on our Virgin (fig. 2). The careful treatment of the puffed sleeves of the shirt that protrudes from the coat, the refinement of the embroidery on each of the garments would be closer to the beautiful Virgin of Rheims (fig. 3). Of the same size, this one is dated to the end of the fifteenth century and shares with ours the same facial expression, this serious look under drooping eyelids matched with a small well drawn mouth with pinched lips. The Child seems less graceful; he has neither the prettiness nor the delicacy of our sculpture. With his legs crossed in the crook of his mother's arm, our toddler is leaning with one hand on his knee while he stretches the other towards the bird in a posture similar to that of the Child in the Virgin of Mesnil-la-Comtesse (fig. 4) or that of Rouvroy (fig. 5), major jewels of the beautiful 16th century in Champagne.