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Seated Virgin, Unidentified Artist, 17th century

Unidentified Artist

Seated Virgin

17th century · Sculpture

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Musées d'Art de Harvard

Cambridge, États-Unis

Salle2440, floor 2, Medieval Art

Présentée au public.

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Le musée
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À propos de la sculpture

In the 14th century, the practice of private devotion was encouraged by Devotio Moderna, a religious movement that arose in present-day Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands. The widely read De Imitatione Christi (The Imitation of Christ), by the German-born Dutch canon Thomas à Kempis, offered instructions for developing a spiritual life anchored on one’s personal relationship with God. Devotional practice was thus no longer confined to the liturgy but was supplemented with private prayer. To facilitate such practice, prayer books, small diptychs, and statuettes of the Virgin and Child and the crucified Christ were frequently produced in various corners of Europe. As private devotion remained a crucial component of Christian spirituality, objects such as the ones displayed here were produced even through the 20th century.

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The ivory statuettes displayed here were made in Europe from African elephant tusks.They evince the enduring tradition of using ivory carvings for private devotion that can be traced to the late Middle Ages. Delicate, warm, and soft to the touch, ivory statuettes of the crucified Christ and the Virgin and Child remained coveted objects in the 17th and 18th centuries. Probably made in Spain during the 17th century, the highly detailed statuette of the crucified Christ dramatically presents the figure in a state of intense pain and suffering through the pronounced neck muscles, the deep incisions in his upward directed pupils, and wide open mouth. Designed to evoke a celestial dimension, the fragment of the Virgin would have originally been joined to a figure of the Christ Child on a cloud. Ivory carvings of this motif were adaptations of contemporaneous painting in northern Italy.

[group label: 1983.32, 1922.79]

Musées d'Art de Harvard

Notice

Numéro d’inventaire
1922.79

Au catalogue

SculptureIvoireBaroqueXVIIe siècleItalie

Sources

Dans la même salle · Gallery 2440, floor 2, Medieval Art, Musées d'Art de Harvard

Page du musée
Crucified Christ, Unidentified Artist, 17th century

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Portable Cross; obverse: Crucified Christ with Virgin, Saints John the Evangelist and Francis; reverse: Crucified Christ with Saints Michael, Paul, Peter, and Louis of Toulouse, c. 1365

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The Virgin and Child Enthroned; Christ on the Cross between the Virgin and Saint John the Evangelist, c. 1350

Christ on the Cross between the Virgin and Saints Mary Magdalene and John the Evangelist; left panel: The Agony in the Garden and Saints Peter and Paul; right panel: Saints Catherine of Alexandria and Margaret of Antioch, Saints James Major and Benedict, Bernardo Daddi, 1334

Bernardo Daddi

Christ on the Cross between the Virgin and Saints Mary Magdalene and John the Evangelist; left panel: The Agony in the Garden and Saints Peter and Paul; right panel: Saints Catherine of Alexandria and Margaret of Antioch, Saints James Major and Benedict, 1334