Southern Netherlandish, Malines, circa 1500-1510 | Virgin and Child

Private collection, Belgium;
by descent to the present owner

While the three-bar mark identifies the present group as the product of a Malines workshop, it shows a stylistic affinity with late 15th-century sculpture from Brussels, notably a pair of statuettes representing Saint Barbara and Saint Catherine in the Victoria and Albert Museum (inv. nos. 192A and 192B-1966). Compare also the Malines figure of Saint Barbara in the same museum (inv. no. 107-1937), dated by Williamson to circa 1500, in contrast to the 'doll-like examples of Malines production after around 1520' (op. cit., p. 127).

RELATED LITERATURE
P. Williamson, Netherlandish Sculpture, 1450-1550, cat. Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2002, pp. 116-117, no. 33 and pp. 126-127, no. 38