The Virgin and Child

CultureFrench

Dateca. 1350

MediumLimestone, traces of polychrome, and colored glass inlays

DimensionsOverall: 79 1/2 × 28 × 17 inches (201.93 × 71.12 × 43.18 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number35-28

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

European Art

Terms

Exhibition History

N/A

Gallery Label

This much-weathered statue was originally placed out of doors on the facade or portal of a church. The back is roughly carved, so only the front was intended to be seen, and the iron ring used to secure it to the wall is still in place. Like all medieval sculpture, this figure was originally painted in bright colors. A few remnants of colored glass intended to simulate jewels have survived from the decoration of the Virgin's crown and the hem of her mantle. The broad face and flat drapery folds are characteristic of mid-14th-century sculpture in the Duchy of Lorraine, later part of northeastern France.

Provenance

With Galerie Demotte, Paris [1];

Altounian-Lorbet Antiquaires, Mâcon, France, by October 2, 1930;

Purchased from Altounian-Lorbet Antiquaires by Brummer Gallery, New York, stock nos. H102 and P7303, on joint account with Arnold Seligmann, Rey and Co., New York, October 2, 1930-February 26, 1935 [2];

Purchased from Brummer and Seligmann Rey, through Harold Woodbury Parsons, by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1935.

NOTES:

[1] Galerie Demotte Photographic Archive, Musée du Louvre, Paris, available digitally online: https://corpus.louvre.fr/s/galeries-demotte/item/34539 , accessed June 2, 2023.

[2] Brummer Gallery sold a half share of the sculpture to Arnold Seligmann, Rey and Co. on December 1, 1930. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Cloisters Library and Archives, Brummer Gallery Records, Gothic and Renaissance marbles, stones, and alabaster, Object inventory card numbers H102 and P7303.

Published References

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 3^rd ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1949), 109, (repro.), as Virgin and Child.

Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4^th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 52, (repro.), as Madonna and Child.

Lea Rosson, A Fourteenth Century Statue of the Virgin and Child in the Nelson Gallery (December 1972), 1-10, (repro.), as “Madonna and Child.”

Marilyn Stokstad and Joseph Kuntz, Virgin and Child in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas, ?), 1-9, (repro.), and Virgin and Child.

Dorothy Gillerman, Gothic Sculpture in America, vol. 2, The Museums of the Midwest (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2001), 208-09, (repro.), as Virgin and Child in Glory.

Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.