Lot n° 35
Estimation :
30000 - 50000
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 108 192EUR
Virgin and Child called Sedes Sapientiae... - Lot 35 - Coutau-Bégarie
Virgin and Child called Sedes Sapientiae in walnut carved in the round with traces of polychromy. Mary is seated on a throne with armrests formed by two arches; she holds her Son seated on her lap, holding him with her two hands, one placed on the Child's left leg and the other on the right side of his hips; she is wearing a veil that forms a very rounded outline around her face. The concentric folds of her garment are in successive waves on her chest and end with parallel falls on her arms; back with a niche to collect a relic.
Auvergne, Limagne workshop, first third of the 13th century
H. 79 cm
(wormholes and missing parts visible)
Provenance : Former Chéron collection
Former Louis-Pierre Bresset collection, Château de la Rochelambert, Haute-Loire.
What is original in this majesty is the juvenile character of the Virgin. Her veil drawing the oval outline of her face gives her a form of superiority; but it also reinforces the juvenile aspect of her features, the almond-shaped eyes and the small, thin and very slightly smiling mouth. This gives not a fright in front of the distance felt but rather a tender confidence which will characterize the relation between this young mother, her Son and the faithful who confide in her.
Art historians speculate that there were workshops, particularly around Clermont-Ferrand, which produced some of the Cantal majesties. This one shares with the Virgin of Notre-Dame d'Usson, (fig a), some common points: the place of the hands, the folds on the thorax; but also with Notre-Dame d'Espinasse (fig b) where we find apart from the identical structuring of the folds and the positioning of the hands of the Virgin and of Christ, a close structure for the throne with the arcature armrests.
Related works: Notre-Dame d'Usson, kept in the Roger-Quillot Art Museum in Clermont-Ferrand and coming from the Saint-Maurice church in Usson (Puy-de-Dôme).
Notre-Dame d'Espinasse, kept in the church of Saint-Blaise in Aubusson-d'Auvergne (Puy-de-Dôme).
Bibliography: J. Liévaux-Boccador, E. Bresset, Statuaire médiévale de collection, Milan, 1972, volume 1, p 112
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