GERMAN, TRIER, CIRCA 1400 | VIRGIN AND CHILD

J. Marx, Cologne;

his sale, Kunsthaus Heinrich Hahn, Trier, 11 June 1929, no. 28;

with Kunsthandel Pahl-Mehringer, by 1975;

Sotheby’s London, 9 December 1976, lot 26;

Christie’s Amsterdam, 7 March 2001, lot 378;

private collection, Belgium

E. Luthgen, Rheinische Kunst des Mittelalters aus Kölner Privatbesitz, Bonn and Leipzig, 1921, p. 92;

Mittelalterliche Kunst aus Kölner Privatbesitz, exh. cat. Cologne, 1927, no. 27;

H. Beck et al. (eds), Kunst um 1400 am Mittelrhein, exh. cat. Liebieghaus, Frankfurt a. Main, 1975, no. 34, pl. 107

This enchanting group is an important survival from the International Gothic in the Middle Rhine region. Carved in the rare material of Muschelkalk (shell limestone), this Virgin and Child follows the type of Schöne Madonnen, characterised by a sweetness of facial features and beautifully cascading folds of drapery. The present group relates closely in composition to the walnut Madonna of the Cologne Friesentor, which is dated to around 1360-1370 (Schnütgen Museum, Cologne, inv. no. A 40). Compare also the slightly later red sandstone Virgin and Child in the Carmelite Church in Mainz (Suckale, op. cit., no. 46), particularly the rounded face and stylised waves of hair. Beck et al. (op. cit.) localised the present Virgin further West, in Trier, citing a more corpulent body type that is characteristic of the Mosel valley. 

RELATED LITERATURE

H. Suckale (ed.), Schöne Madonnen am Rhein, exh. cat. LVR-Landesmuseum, Bonn, 2009, nos. 38, 44 and 46