The Virgin and Child

The group is one of the earliest French carvings in ivory representing the Standing Virgin and Child. These first gothic ivories share the same stylistic traits as their monumental counterparts on the portals of cathedrals, and this Virgin has a similar arrangement of the drapery to the famous stone Madonna on the south doorway of the west front of Amiens cathedral, of 1230-35.

There is also a connection of this Virgin and Child to the so-called Davillier Virgin in the Musée du Louvre in Paris. There can be little doubt that the seated Davilliers Virgin is actually by the same craftsman as the V&A ivory. The faces are virtually identical and both figures display the same heavy folds of drapery. But not just that, the treatment of the back of the Virgin's veil, is very particular and distinctive and is displayed in the same way on both figures.