Virgin and Child in pearwood carved in the round,... Lot 26

Virgin and Child in pearwood carved in the round, base and crown in gilded silver. Mary, of slender build, carries the Child seated on her left arm; her face with harmonious features is framed by finely undulating hair covered by a half-length veil, one side of which Jesus grasps with one hand and which falls in two points down her back; she is clothed in a floor-length robe and two overlapping cloaks, with beak pleats on the front and a tiered scrolled fall under the right arm; the Child, with a smiling expression, dressed in a very long swaddling cloth leaving his bust uncovered, holds a closed book in his left hand. Crown with fleurons made of cut-out and curved leaves, paneled base bordered by a row of small fleur-de-lys. Virgin: Île-de-France or Champagne, circa 1300/1320 Crown and base: 15th century Total height 32 cm (Child's right hand and left arm missing, small cracks) This Virgin still maintains a reserved attitude towards her Child compared to the Virgins of Tenderness; however, it does not preclude interaction between the Mother and her Son, who grasps a flap of her veil. It is very close to the Virgin in the Musée Max-Claudet at Salins-les-Bains in the Jura region, which was produced in the Île-de-France region, circa 1310-1320 (inv. S. 29, fig.). It features the Child's gesture, the large piece of linen covering his legs while leaving his bust bare, and the return of the part of the Virgin's cloak held in place by her right forearm. Provenance : - private collection, Switzerland. - Galerie Fischer sale, Lucerne, June 6-9, 1945, lot 714. - private collection, United Kingdom, until 2017. Book consulted : - Exposition Paris 1998, L'Art au temps des rois maudits Philippe le Bel et ses fils 1285-1328, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, cat.31, p 76-77. This statuette was subjected to a carbon-14 analysis carried out by IRPA in Brussels on August 18, 2022. It concluded that the wood could be dated between 1165 and 1265, with a probability of 95.4%.