FRENCH, PROBABLY PARIS, LATE 13TH OR EARLY 14TH CENTURY

During the thirteenth century there was a marked development in the depiction of the Virgin and Child together, away from the more static depictions of the Virgin seated enthroned, known as Sedes sapentiae, towards a more lively composition in which the mother and child were positioned with a Gothic sway, twisting towards each other and interacting more vividly. French depictions of the Virgin from these groups of the 13th century are treated with soft wavy hair, carefully protruding from under their veil, as with the ivory Virgin and Child from the Sainte-Chapelle (Louvre, OA 57). The present group already begins to free itself from these 13th century characteristics with its simpler large folds and with the tight horizontal wavy hair of the Virgin, a style which appeared at the end of the 13th century and early 14th century in Ile-de-France, Burgundy and the east of France.

The present lot compares closely to a marble figure of St. Catherine of Alexandria in the church of Bézu-la-Forêt, France (Paris, op. cit., fig. 22, p. 78), dated second quarter of the 14th century. They both display the same large vertical folds breaking on the floor, the same monumentality, facial features and hairstyle. Combining refinement and simplicity, both sculptures have probably been made in a Parisian workshop.