Virgin and Child from the Sainte-Chapelle
Unknown · c. 1260-1270
Forty one centimetres of elephant ivory, carved in Paris around twelve sixty to twelve seventy, make up the most celebrated of all Gothic ivory statuettes. The Virgin stands with a slight sway of the hip, her body supple and elongated, her small triangular face framed by veil and crown, and she smiles down at the Child, who holds an apple. Her mantle falls in long, deep folds that catch the light, a translation into ivory of the style of the great cathedral sculptures of the same years. Paris had become the undisputed capital of ivory carving in the thirteenth century, when tusks began to arrive again through the Atlantic and Norman ports, and a royal clientele let carvers show off in statuettes, diptychs, caskets and mirror cases.
The statuette came from the treasury of the Sainte-Chapelle, the palace chapel of Saint Louis, and appears in its earliest inventory before twelve eighty five and in every one that followed down to seventeen forty. Sent to the depot of the Petits-Augustins in seventeen ninety one and sold, it passed through the collections of Alexandre Lenoir, Debruge-Duménil and Prince Soltykoff, at whose sale in eighteen sixty one the Louvre bought it.
Did You Know? The gentle lean of the Virgin follows the natural curve of the elephant tusk she was carved from.
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