Wheel Window

Former TitleRosace Window

CultureItalian

Date14th century

MediumLimestone or marble

DimensionsOverall: 55 1/2 inches (140.97 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number44-50/2

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

European Art

Terms

Exhibition History

N/A

Gallery Label

This circular sculptural form, or roundel, was originally set into a wall for use as a window. A Gothic architectural motif of columns and trefoil arches encircles an image of the Virgin and Child at its center. Christ's gesture of holding the Virgin's breast with both hands is an unusual departure from most other images of Christ at his mother's breast. Perhaps, since the window would only have been seen from a distance, the artist may have felt free to be less conventional.

Provenance

With A. Satori, Vienna, by September 30, 1929 [1];

Purchased from Satori by Brummer Gallery, Paris and New York, stock no. P6348, September 30, 1929-November 22, 1930;

Purchased from Brummer by William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951), New York and San Simeon, CA, November 22, 1930-June 7, 1944 [2];

Purchased from Hearst by Brummer Gallery, New York, stock no. N5982, June 7, 1944-December 1, 1944 [3];

Purchased from Brummer, through Harold Woodbury Parsons, by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1944.

NOTES:

[1] The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Cloisters Library and Archive, Brummer Gallery Records, Roman, Gothic, Renaissance and Greek architecture and capitals, Object inventory card number P6348.

[2] William Randolph Hearst Archive, Long Island University Post (S/B lot 403, art. 10, Album 82, p. 22).

[3] The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Cloisters Library and Archive, Brummer Gallery Records, Roman, Gothic, Renaissance and Greek architecture and capitals, Object inventory card number N5982.

Published References

Dorothy Gillerman, Gothic Sculpture in America, vol. 2, The Museums of the Midwest (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2001), unpaginated, as Rosace Window.

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