VIRGIN WITH CHILD Brittany, early 16th century... Lot 27

VIRGIN WITH CHILD Brittany, early 16th century Wood (lime or poplar?); polychromy Small repeats of the polychromy H. 130 cm This Virgin with a contemplative attitude was probably intended to be placed high up, leaning against a support. Like her, the Child in her arms is looking down. The sculptor's attention to naturalistic detail is reflected in the figures. Mary appears as a young girl, almost fragile under her cloak with deep spoon-shaped folds. Our Virgin is of great delicacy. The lips are thin, slightly half-open, and the corners of the mouth are pressed together, as can also be seen in the Virgin of Plomeur (fig. 1). They are not crowned, their hair simply held back by two strands that accompany the curve of the forehead. As for the child, he is small, with chubby legs, attaching by his fragility in the arms of his protective mother. This beardless and tonsured man wears the brown frock of the Franciscan monks. The polychromy applied on a canvas affixed to the carved wood gives this portrait a rare realism in the expression of the face and in the pleating of the hood that wraps his shoulders over the robe. On his chest, a small aedicula with a triangular pediment supported by two columns once housed the relics intended for the piety of the faithful. The bust must have rested on the wall, as the rough back suggests. The interior is hollowed out to reduce its weight. The powerful neck supports a delicate head, slightly tilted to the left. Its almond-shaped eyes open under the regular line of the superciliary arches. The straight wings of the nose emphasize the high cheekbones. The cheeks are hollowed out, the nasolabial folds deeply marked around a half-open mouth that reinforces the tragic air of her distant gaze. The quality of execution of our Franciscan, the interiorized psychology of his expression suggest that this is the work of a great artist of the Italian Renaissance , in the tradition of a master such as Francesco di Giorgio Martini (Siena, 1439-1501) to whom we owe, among other things, a poignant portrait of the young St. Francis marrying Poverty (fig. 1).