English, probably Nottingham, second half 15th century
Relief with the Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin
Auction Closed
June 10, 02:51 PM GMT
Estimate
15,000 - 20,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
English, probably Nottingham, second half 15th century
Relief with the Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin
alabaster, with remnants of gilding and polychromy, on a perspex mount
relief: 52 by 25cm., 20½ by 9⅞in.
inscribed: 4123 to the reverse
With S. W. Wolsey, 1957;
Per Gjerding Collection, Portugal, circa 1959-2024
The Connoisseur, June 1957 (advertised by S. W. Wolsey);
F. Cheetham, Alabaster Images of Medieval England, Woodbridge, 2003, p. 99, no. 6 and fig. 96
The Virgin's Assumption and Coronation via the angels and the Trinity, as represented in the present relief, is a symbolic demonstration of the Church’s belief in the appreciation and reward by God of the part played by Mary in the Incarnation and Redemption. At the Virgin's feet is the kneeling figure of Saint Thomas, clasping the Virgin’s belt, which she had dropped as a tangible demonstration to Thomas’s doubting of the truth of the Assumption, an event described in the Golden Legend.
Among English medieval alabasters, more than one hundred panels of the Assumption are extant, as it was usually the final panel (together with the Coronation) on altarpieces depicting the Life of the Virgin. The present relief is a fine example of 'type C' listed in Cheetham's survey (op. cit.), in which the Holy Spirit appears in the form of a dove.
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