The Virgin tramples a quasi-human winged serpent, an allusion to her triumph over the devil, as foretold in Genesis (3:15): “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed; she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.”
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Artwork Details
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Title:Virgin and Child
Date:ca. 1275–1300
Geography:Made in France
Culture:French
Medium:Elephant ivory with paint
Dimensions:14 1/2 × 6 1/2 × 5 in. (36.8 × 16.5 × 12.7 cm) Other (weight): 11 lb. (5003g) Other (cavity in bottom): 11/16 × 3/4 × 1 13/16 in. (1.8 × 1.9 × 4.6 cm)
Classification:Ivories-Elephant
Credit Line:Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917
Object Number:17.190.295
This massive and exceptionally refined ivory carving presents Mary holding the infant Jesus on her lap. Her throne and crown are modern replacements of original elements. Scoring and dowel holes on the bottom of the sculpture show that the sculpture previously stood on a base.
The Virgin tramples a chimerical woman-headed dragon at her feet, a reference to Mary’s role as the Second Eve whose son would wash away the sin caused by the first Eve in the Garden of Eden. Mary is veiled and wears a gown or kirtle that gathers in crinkled folds around her knees and feet, and a mantel whose ends cross on her lap.
The artist has used gesture to merge the spiritual nature of Mary and Jesus with their profoundly relatable, human qualities. This emotional element, largely absent in images of the Virgin and Child of the twelfth century (see, for instance Met acc. no. 67.153; 16.32.194a, b), emerged from a developing theological interest in the humanity of these holy figures and a new devotional emphasis on identifying with their emotional journeys on earth. Thus, crowned and enthroned, Mary serves as Queen of Heaven, but her tender embrace suggests the loving care of a young mother. She supports Jesus with her left hand as he cavorts on her lap, and with her ring-clad right hand, she holds a flower, now reduced to a fragment of the stem. While the flower was in the thirteenth century a well-known metaphor for Mary’s purity and an allusion to the rod that burst into blossom at her engagement to Joseph of Nazareth, Jesus is seen here treating it as a toy. Leaning on his mother, he throws his head back as he reaches for it in a playful motion that also forms a gesture of benediction.
Throughout much of the twentieth century, this sculpture languished in storage at The Met, under the assumption that it was a forgery. It had come to the Museum in 1917 as part of the Morgan gift, but in 1922, Otto van Falke identified it as a fake from the workshop fronted by Luigi Parmeggiani (1860– 1945), known by his alias Louis Marcy. The ivory expert Raymond Koechlin concurred, and on his advice the curator Joseph Breck consigned the statue to storage in 1928. It was not until the beginning of the twenty-first century that this attribution to a modern forger’s workshop was questioned, and in 2010 radiocarbon analysis of the ivory revealed a date of between 1210 and 1290 (2 sigma calibration with a 95% probability). As it is unlikely that an early twentieth-century forging ring would have access to or conceive of reason seek out a piece of genuine medieval ivory, this date is taken as proof of the medieval date of the carving. But, in the absence of scientific dating, what qualities had earlier art historians found so confusing? In many ways this sculpture seemed too good to be true. It is one of the largest ivory statues representing the Virgin and Child to survive from the Middle Ages, of exquisite quality, and the condition of its surface and fine detail is nearly flawless. Moreover, there are applied elements that are obviously of the modern period. The throne, crown, and brooch on Mary’s chest are stylistically anachronistic and although they are appliques that could be added or removed with no damage to the main body, they cast doubt on the other aspects of the sculpture. The sculpture is furthermore covered in paint and gilded decoration, which is especially thick in Mary’s mantle, the hems of her garment and that of her son, and in their hair. While this paint follows the original design, it was renewed in the nineteenth century, lending the whole object an air of newness that concerned early twentieth-century experts. With radiocarbon dating, new research into medieval polychrome decoration, and an expanded understanding of stylistic trends in thirteenth-century France, it is now possible to reassess this sculpture as a major monument of Parisian ivory carving of the fourth quarter of the century.
Further Reading:
Charles T. Little, "Gothic Ivories: Studies at the Crossroads," Sculpture Journal 23(2014): pp. 13-29.
Catalogue Entry by Scott Miller, Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial and Research Collections Specialist, Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters, 2020–2022
Baron Albert Oppenheim, Cologne(sold 1906); J. Pierpont Morgan (American), London and New York (1906–1917)
Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf. "Kunsthistorische Ausstellung," May 1–October 20, 1902.
Citizen's Committee for Children of New York, Inc. "Benefit Exhibition for the Citizens' Committee for Children," October 24–December 8, 1974.
Reusens, Edmond Henri Joseph, ed. Exposition Rétrospective d'Art Industriel, Bruxelles 1888: Catalogue Officiel. Brussels: P. Weissenbruch, 1888. no. 1377, p. 248.
Molinier, Emile. Les Ivoires. Histoire générale des arts appliqués à l'industrie, Vol. 1. Paris: Librairie Centrale des Beaux-Arts, 1896. p. 186.
Catalogue officiel illustré de l'exposition retrospective de l'art français des origines à 1800. Exposition universelle de 1900. Paris: Lemercier & Cie., 1900. no. 61, p. 264.
Marcou, Paul Frantz. "L'exposition rétrospective de l'art français: Les ivoires." Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 3rd ser., 23, no. 6 (June 1900). p. 486.
Molinier, Emile, and F. Marcou. Exposition rétrospective de l'art français des origines à 1800, edited by Emile Lévy. Exposition universelle de 1900: l'art français des origines à la fin du XIXe siècle. Paris: Librairie Centrale des Beaux-Arts, [1901]. pp. 7, 137, ill. [unnumbered pl.].
Migeon, Gaston. L'exposition rétrospective de l'art décoratif français. Vol. I. Paris: Goupil & Co., [1901]. p. 3, ill. unnumbered pl.
Kunsthistorische Ausstellung, Düsseldorf 1902: Illustrirter Katalog. Düsseldorf: August-Bagel-Verlag, 1902. no. 1209, p. 106, pl. 78.
Molinier, Emile. Collection du Baron Albert Oppenheim: Tableaux et objets d'art, catalogue précédé d'une introduction. Paris: Librairie Centrale des Beaux-Arts, 1904. no. 69, p. 31, pl. LII.
The New York Times. "Mr. Morgan's Old Carvings." The New York Times (November 18, 1906). p. X4, ill. pictorial supplement "The Oppenheim–Morgan Collection".
Guide to the Loan Exhibition of the J. Pierpont Morgan Collection. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1914. ill. opp. p. 32.
Kunz, George F. Ivory and the Elephant in Art, in Archaeology, and in Science. New York: Doubleday & Company, 1916. p. 49.
Breck, Joseph, ed. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Pierpont Morgan Wing: A Brief Guide to the Art of the Renaissance, Medieval and Earlier Periods. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1918. p. 12, ill. p. 8.
Falke, Otto von. "Die Marcy-Fälschungen." Belvedere 1 (1922). pp. 12–13, fig. 12, pl. VI.
Koechlin, Raymond. Les Ivoires Gothiques Français: Volume I, Text. Paris: Editions Auguste Picard, 1924. no. 94, p. 104.
Koechlin, Raymond. Les Ivoires Gothiques Français: Volume II, Catalogue. Paris: Editions Auguste Picard, 1924. no. 94, p. 40.
Kurz, Otto. Fakes: A Handbook for Collectors and Students. London: Faber and Faber, 1948. p. 170, pl. 51.
Blair, Claude, and M. Campbell. Louis Marcy: Oggetti d'arte della Galleria Parmeggiani di Reggio Emilia. Torino: Umberto Allemandi, 2008. pp. 72–75, fig. 31.
Little, Charles T. "The Art of Gothic Ivories: Studies at the Crossroads." The Sculpture Journal 31, no. 1 (2014). pp. 14–18, fig. 1,2.
Ciseri, Ilaria, ed. Gli avori del Museo nazionale del Bargello. Milan: Museo Nazionale del Bargello, 2018. pp. 208, 211.
Guérin, Sarah M. "Gold, ivory, and copper, materials and arts of trans-Saharan trade." In Caravans of gold, fragments in time: art, culture, and exchange across medieval Saharan Africa. Evanston, IL: Mary and Leigh Block Museum, Northwestern University, 2019. pp. 191, 194, fig. 12.15.
Collins, Kristen, and Bryan C. Keene, ed. Balthazar: A Black African King in Medieval and Renaissance Art. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2023. pp. 52–53, fig. 54.
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