Saint Woman in fine-grained limestone, carved... Lot 34

Saint Woman in fine-grained limestone, carved and polychromed. Standing, she holds a closed book in her right hand and a bouquet of roses surrounded by seals in her other hand; beautiful face with a high, rounded, unobstructed forehead, eyes tapering towards the temples, small mouth with deep corners; long hair encircled by a diadem whose strands rest on her shoulders; She is wearing a belted dress and a cloak with panels held to the chest by a diamond-shaped clasp edged with large pearls; the right panel returns to the front of the legs, forming angular folds on one side and an undulating cornet on the other. Upper Normandy, workshop of the Master of the Annunciation of Bois-Héroult, mid-15th century H. 90 cm (slight accidents and scratches, minor damage to the tip of the nose) Works consulted - J. Baudouin, La sculpture flamboyante en Normandie et Île-de-France, ed. Créer, Nonette, 1992, p.241-245. - Exhibition Paris 2006, Œuvres nouvelles, 1995-2005, Thermes et hôtel de Cluny - musée du Moyen Âge, E. Taburet-Delahaye sous la dir.de, cat. 36, p. 70-73. This beautiful saint, whose attribute remains enigmatic, was obviously produced in the same Normandy workshop as the Annunciation returned to the Musée de Cluny collections from the Château de Bois-Héroult in the Eure (Cl. 23796). Having presented this group as an expert some twenty years ago, when it was pre-empted at public auction, I note a number of similarities that support this origin: the similar nature of the limestone used, remarkable for its homogeneity as well as its finesse, and the singular characteristics of the faces with their "small features and large foreheads", as underlined by Baudouin. The confrontation of the angel's head with that of the saint is particularly striking (fig.). The location of this workshop has yet to be determined, and comparisons have only been made with other works from Normandy, such as the large Saint Michael from the Collegiate Church of Blainville (Seine-Maritime), or Saint Catherine from Carentan (Manche). As for dating, it seems that the undulating folds under the saint's left arm, the broken folds at the waist and the prominence of the belly indicate a date not too far into the 15th century.