Virgin and Child of Jeanne d'Evreux
Unknown · 1324-1339
Standing nearly seventy centimetres high in gilded silver, the Virgin sways gently on her hips as she holds the Child, who reaches up to touch her chin in the tender gesture inherited from Byzantine images. In her right hand she carries a fleur-de-lis of goldsmith's work and rock crystal, which once enclosed relics of the Virgin's clothing, hair and milk; the flower is inscribed Of the hair of Our Lady, Hail full of grace. The base, carried by four small lions, is a miniature building with buttresses framing niches of tiny prophets. Between them, fourteen plaques of translucent enamel on low relief silver tell the childhood and Passion of Christ, from the Annunciation to the Descent into Limbo, in the glowing colours of the newest Parisian technique of the day.
An enamelled inscription on the base records that Queen Jeanne d'Evreux, widow of Charles the Fourth, gave the image to the abbey of Saint-Denis on the twenty eighth of April thirteen thirty nine. It is the finest surviving example of Parisian goldsmithing of the early fourteenth century. Seized at the Revolution, it reached the museum on the fifth of December seventeen ninety three.
Did You Know? The queen's gift was documented so carefully that the exact day it entered Saint-Denis, the twenty eighth of April thirteen thirty nine, is spelled out in enamel on the base.
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