NORTH EASTERN FRENCH, POSSIBLY ARBOIS, CIRCA 1530 | VIRGIN ANNUNCIATE WITH A DONOR

Sotheby's London, 18 November 2009, lot 263

This Virgin Annunciate of impressive size displays a number of details that have been carved with great virtuosity. The prie-dieu at which the Virgin is reading shows a kneeling figure with a banderole: a donor, judging by his garb a clergyman. The Virgin's elaborate locks of hair, which fall in single strands down her front and have been tied at the top of her head, together with her low, V-shaped and belted waistline and squared, decorated neckline, indicate a possible origin for the present figure in the Troyes region, or at least an influence of the Troyes school. Compare, for instance, to the limestone Virgin and Child in the Hôtel-Dieu of Troyes (Boccador, op. cit., fig. 128, which has a similarly belted waist with a loop at the centre. Further comparison can bee seen in the facial features, and the kneeling donor - possibly a bishop - situated at the feet of the Troyes Virgin.

Two figures of Holy Women in walnut in the Staatliche Museen Berlin (op. cit. figs. 123 and 124), also compare to the present lot: note the squared necklines with visible under-tunics, as well as the finely gathered ruched shirt-sleeves appearing from underneath the heavier folds of drapery. Perhaps most similar to the present Virgin Annunciate is the Vièrge d'Arbois (Baudoin, op. cit. fig. 525 and 525bis), which compares in the similarly looped and tied sash around the waist, the square neckline, the elaborately tied hair which falls down in individual strands, and the gathered sleeves. A possible origin for the present sculpture in Arbois could therefore be suggested. Boccador (op. cit. p. 158) notes an influence on the Arbois Virgin from the Troyes school, as well as the wider Champagne region. Single monumental figures with a kneeling donor also seem to have been a characteristic of school of Troyes - note, besides the Virgin mentioned above, a figure of Saint James with a kneeling donor, dated circa 1520: the donor is sat at a prie-dieu, and is identified with a similar banderole of text to the present lot (Boccador, op. cit., fig. 170).

RELATED LITERATURE

J. Boccador, Statuaire Médiévale en France de 1400 à 1530, vol. II, Zoug, 1974, pp. 107-166; J. Baudoin, La Sculpture Flamboyante en Bourgogne et Franche-Comté, Nonnette, 1999, pp. 339-341