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拍品专文
This beautifully carved figure of a female saint displays many similarities to a well-known group of the Virgin and Child in the Louvre (inv. R.F. 1833; published in Paris, loc. cit.). Both share the high forehead, distinctive outswept curls of hair that frame the face and then fall in individual locks, the mannered positioning of the hands, and the distinctive angular drapery that is punctuated by the occasional broad circular fold.
The Louvre group, known as the Isenheim Virgin and Child due to its traditional provenance from that city in the Upper Rhine region, has never been plausibly attributed to a known sculptor, but is recognised as having been highly influential in the region around Basel due to the number of closely related groups with provenances from nearby institutions (for illustrations of these see ibid, pp. 120 and 122, figs a-i). The present group also shares similarities with a number of these groups, although none appears to be from the same hand. In her study of late gothic sculpture in Basel, Annie Kaufmann-Hagenbach also illustrates groups which are related to the present lot including the Virgin in an Anna Selbdritt group from Bern (now housed in the Historisches Museum in Basel; op.cit., fig. 112). Along with two accompanying figures of Saints Catherine and Agnes also in Basel, all four figures share the same facial type with high, rounded foreheads, eyes that are slightly down-turned at the outer edges, tapering face and pointed chin. The fact that sculpture of this region suffered so dramatically during the Reformation's waves of iconoclasm makes this figure a rare survival of the period.
The Louvre group, known as the Isenheim Virgin and Child due to its traditional provenance from that city in the Upper Rhine region, has never been plausibly attributed to a known sculptor, but is recognised as having been highly influential in the region around Basel due to the number of closely related groups with provenances from nearby institutions (for illustrations of these see ibid, pp. 120 and 122, figs a-i). The present group also shares similarities with a number of these groups, although none appears to be from the same hand. In her study of late gothic sculpture in Basel, Annie Kaufmann-Hagenbach also illustrates groups which are related to the present lot including the Virgin in an Anna Selbdritt group from Bern (now housed in the Historisches Museum in Basel; op.cit., fig. 112). Along with two accompanying figures of Saints Catherine and Agnes also in Basel, all four figures share the same facial type with high, rounded foreheads, eyes that are slightly down-turned at the outer edges, tapering face and pointed chin. The fact that sculpture of this region suffered so dramatically during the Reformation's waves of iconoclasm makes this figure a rare survival of the period.