Lot n° 34
Estimation :
60000 - 80000
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 154 560EUR
Virgin and Child called Sedes Sapientiae... - Lot 34 - Coutau-Bégarie
Virgin and Child called Sedes Sapientiae in walnut, carved in the round, polychromed and marouflaged. Seated on a throne bench with arcades supported by five columns, Mary is dressed in a long tunic with a network of flexible chain-like folds, superimposed and evenly spaced on her chest and arms; she is wearing a veil covering her hair, some strands of which appear on her temples, and a long pectoral decorated with gems that runs down her chest. Christ is seated on his mother's lap, held by Mary's two hands and presenting a book with his left hand; back with a niche to collect a relic.
Auvergne, late 12th century
H. 77 cm - Total height : 87 cm
(old restorations, wormholes)
Provenance : Former collection of Louis-Pierre Bresset, château de la Rochelambert, Haute-Loire.
The Sedes Sapientiae from the Bresset Collection presented on this page is one of the most perfectly representative of the Symbolism of this Sacred Art of the XIIth century. This is how Jacqueline Boccador introduces her chapter on the thrones of wisdom in her book Statuaire médiévale de collection, Milan, 1972.
Indeed, we are undoubtedly in the presence of a rare piece of Romanesque art in Auvergne. The almost hieratic frontal attitude, the gaze lost in a Beyond, the solemnity of the Virgin presenting her Son makes the event a serious moment. Many are the descriptions analyzing the draperies, the folds, the almost aristocratic solemnity of these majesties. But everything is present here, including the silence that arises while one is seized by the perfect adequacy of the stylistic elements that make us love Romanesque art.
The reliquary statues from Auvergne are very early in the production of these majesties. Indeed, the faith in the Assumption of Mary who went to heaven with her own body does not allow to honor relics of her remains, the statues will lose their reliquary function, even if they contained relics of other saints. The presence here of this niche therefore attests to the even greater antiquity of this sculpture compared to other majesties.
Bibliography : J. Liévaux-Boccador, E. Bresset, Statuaire médiévale de collection, Milan, 1972, tome 1 p 103
Works consulted :
Louis Réau, L'iconographie de l'art chrétien, iconographie de la Bible II, tome 2, Paris, 1957
Hélène Leroy and Francis Debaisieux, Vierges romanes, portraits croisés, Beaumont, 2009
Marie-Blanche Potte, Dominique Faunières, Agnès Blossier and Lucretia Kargère, Etudes menées sur les sculptures d'Auvergne en bois polychromé, Medievalista Nº 26, July-December 2019
Emile Male, Vierges Romanes d'Auvergne, le Point n° XXV, Lanzac, June 1943.
Jean-René Gaborit and Dominique Faunières, Une Vierge en majesté, Solo collection, Paris, 2009
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