A FRENCH POLYCHROME OAK FIGURE OF A KNEELING DONOR

EARLY 16TH CENTURY

Details

A FRENCH POLYCHROME OAK FIGURE OF A KNEELING DONOR
Early 16th Century
The figure kneels in a fur-lined robe before a prie-dieu with an open missal, the sides carved with the arms of the Ainval family, the base painted with yellow ink '28204' and '3'
14in. (37.5cm.) high

Literature

C. Avery, Sculpture from Troyes, Victoria and Albert Museum Brochure, no. 4, 1974; reprinted in C. Avery, Studies in European Sculpture - II, London, 1988, p. 110, pl. 11,12

Lot Essay

The statue is from the region of Amiens in Picardie and the prie- dieu bears the arms of the Ainval family. The arms probably represent a younger branch of the family given the small star. The donor is carved and painted all round, which indicates that the statuette was mounted so that it could be seen from all sides. A similar figure of Jean Huyard l'Ain (also carved in the round) is mounted within the tripod stand of a wooden lectern that he commissioned in 1528 for a church of which he was cur, St. Syre at Monceaux (near Vaudes, Troyes, France): his coat-of-arms hangs round the neck of the eagle book-rest above (see C. Avery, op. cit, p. 108).