Lot n° 44
Estimation :
20000 - 30000
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 48 944EUR
Holy woman reading in carved walnut. Standing,... - Lot 44 - Coutau-Bégarie
Holy woman reading in carved walnut. Standing, holding an open book in front of her, she wears a bicorn headdress with shells over her ears, decorated with a rich diamond-shaped cabochon with pearled contours; the long curly hair falls down the back in strands whose clever undulation gives a particularly rich naturalness to this hairstyle. Beautiful oval and fine face, with a clear forehead, almond-shaped eyes, a slightly pointed nose, a small and tight mouth. She is wearing a dress with slit sleeves, a camail with embroidered edges rests on her shoulders. One side of the dress is raised on the left side forming deep, heavy and vertical folds.
Mosan region, Maastricht, workshop of Jan Van Steffeswert (Maastricht, ca. 1460 - 1531), early 16th century
H. 76 cm
(small restorations)
Provenance : Former collection of Louis-Pierre Bresset, Château de la Rochelambert, Haute-Loire.
Jan Van Steffeswert's works are usually identified by his signature or master mark (a horizontally divided triangle with a cross and an asterisk), here none of these. Thanks to the sculptures that have been attributed to this Limbourg master, it is possible to link this sculpture to his workshop. Indeed, a particular care is brought to the ornamentation of the clothes and the headdresses. There are strings of pearls, ganses, embroideries that form the almost exaggerated style recognizable in several works preserved in museums. Let's mention the sculpture of Mary Magdalene kept in the church of Saint Matthew in Maastricht (fig). The headdress, the hollows of the sleeves are in perfect correlation with the sculpture presented. The headdress of the latter is very spectacular, a very particular care was given to it; it is well the sign of a production perhaps with several hands where the master would have worked on the face while the pupils continued the work of the draperies.
Works consulted: H.G.M. Rutten, Jan van Steffeswert, een maastrichtse beeldhouwer , Amici Insulae, 2000
Bibliography: J. Liévaux-Boccador, E. Bresset, Statuaire médiévale de collection, Milan, 1972, volume 2, p 183
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