The Virgin tramples a quasi-human winged serpent, an allusion to her triumph over the devil, as foretold in Genesis (3:15): “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed; she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.”
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Artwork Details
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Title:Virgin and Child
Date:ca. 1275–1300
Geography:Made in France
Culture:French
Medium:Ivory with paint
Dimensions:14 1/2 × 6 1/2 × 5 in. (36.8 × 16.5 × 12.7 cm) Other (weight): 11 lb. (5003g) Other (cavity in bottom): 11/16 × 3/4 × 1 13/16 in. (1.8 × 1.9 × 4.6 cm)
Classification:Ivories-Elephant
Credit Line:Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917
Accession Number:17.190.295
Baron Albert Oppenheim, Cologne(sold 1906); J. Pierpont Morgan (American), London and New York (1906–1917)
Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf. "Kunsthistorische Ausstellung," May 1–October 20, 1902.
Citizen's Committee for Children of New York, Inc. "Benefit Exhibition for the Citizens' Committee for Children," October 24–December 8, 1974.
Reusens, Edmond Henri Joseph, ed. Exposition Rétrospective d'Art Industriel, Bruxelles 1888: Catalogue Officiel. Brussels: P. Weissenbruch, 1888. no. 1377, p. 248.
Molinier, Emile. Les Ivoires. Histoire générale des arts appliqués à l'industrie, Vol. 1. Paris: Librairie Centrale des Beaux-Arts, 1896. p. 186.
Catalogue officiel illustré de l'exposition retrospective de l'art français des origines à 1800. Exposition universelle de 1900. Paris: Lemercier & Cie., 1900. no. 61, p. 264.
Marcou, Paul Frantz. "L'exposition rétrospective de l'art français: Les ivoires." Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 3rd ser., 23, no. 6 (June 1900). p. 486.
Molinier, Emile, and F. Marcou. Exposition rétrospective de l'art français des origines à 1800, edited by Emile Lévy. Exposition universelle de 1900: l'art français des origines à la fin du XIXe siècle. Paris: Librairie Centrale des Beaux-Arts, [1901]. pp. 7, 137, ill. [unnumbered pl.].
Migeon, Gaston. L'exposition rétrospective de l'art décoratif français. Vol. I. Paris: Goupil & Co., [1901]. p. 3, ill. unnumbered pl.
Kunsthistorische Ausstellung, Düsseldorf 1902: Illustrirter Katalog. Düsseldorf: August-Bagel-Verlag, 1902. no. 1209, p. 106, pl. 78.
Molinier, Emile. Collection du Baron Albert Oppenheim: Tableaux et objets d'art, catalogue précédé d'une introduction. Paris: Librairie Centrale des Beaux-Arts, 1904. no. 69, p. 31, pl. LII.
The New York Times. "Mr. Morgan's Old Carvings." The New York Times (November 18, 1906). p. X4, ill. pictorial supplement "The Oppenheim–Morgan Collection".
Kunz, George F. Ivory and the Elephant in Art, in Archaeology, and in Science. New York: Doubleday & Company, 1916. p. 49.
Breck, Joseph, ed. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Pierpont Morgan Wing: A Brief Guide to the Art of the Renaissance, Medieval and Earlier Periods. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1918. p. 12, ill. p. 8.
Falke, Otto von. "Die Marcy-Fälschungen." Belvedere 1 (1922). pp. 12–13, fig. 12, pl. VI.
Koechlin, Raymond. Les Ivoires Gothiques Français: Volume I, Text. Paris: Editions Auguste Picard, 1924. no. 94, p. 104.
Koechlin, Raymond. Les Ivoires Gothiques Français: Volume II, Catalogue. Paris: Editions Auguste Picard, 1924. no. 94, p. 40.
Kurz, Otto. Fakes: A Handbook for Collectors and Students. London: Faber and Faber, 1948. p. 170, pl. 51.
Blair, Claude, and M. Campbell. Louis Marcy: Oggetti d'arte della Galleria Parmeggiani di Reggio Emilia. Torino: Umberto Allemandi, 2008. pp. 72–75, fig. 31.
Little, Charles T. "The Art of Gothic Ivories: Studies at the Crossroads." The Sculpture Journal 31, no. 1 (2014). pp. 14–18, fig. 1,2.
Ciseri, Ilaria, ed. Gli avori del Museo nazionale del Bargello. Milan: Museo Nazionale del Bargello, 2018. pp. 208, 211.
Guérin, Sarah M. "Gold, ivory, and copper, materials and arts of trans-Saharan trade." In Caravans of gold, fragments in time: art, culture, and exchange across medieval Saharan Africa. Evanston, IL: Mary and Leigh Block Museum, Northwestern University, 2019. pp. 191, 194, fig. 12.15.
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