Virgin and Child

This ivory statuette presents Mary standing with the young Jesus sitting in the crook of her left arm. She arches her back under the weight of the child, a naturalistic detail that is also a technical conceit, allowing the finished sculpture to be larger by incorporating the natural curvature of the elephant tusk into the design. Mary wears a veil and a belted, form-fitting gown or kirtle. She gathers her voluminous mantle at her right hip, producing a cascade of deep, crinkled folds. These folds overlay the vertical pleats of her dress that meet the ground as a mass of horizontal folds that she treads underfoot. The young Jesus wears a smock and, holding a sphere or apple in his left hand, raises his right in a sign of benediction. Mary and Jesus share a facial type, with thin eyes, arched brows, puffy, incised eyelids, thin mouths, curly hair, and a pointy chin. In an early use of ultra-violet radiation on artworks, James Rorimer conducted a study of the sculpture in 1931. It revealed that the head of Jesus and the right hand of Mary fluoresced purple whereas the rest of the sculpture fluoresced yellow (Rorimer 1931, 30). This divergence demonstrates that the hand of Mary and head of Jesus are modern restorations and that the resemblance of Jesus to his mother represents a skillful attempt to match the early fourteenth-century style of Mary’s face.

While there is limited information about the provenance of this statue before it came to The Met in 1930 as a part of the Theodore M. Davis bequest, its physical condition tells of a succession of owners who sought to preserve and restore its medieval beauty through alterations that "corrected" damage, refreshed elements that had become faded, and provided for its safe display and storage. It appears that the statue suffered an accident at some point in the nineteenth century, perhaps a fall from a high surface. A skillful and extensive campaign of restoration disguised traces of breakage. Ultraviolet analysis revealed the head of Jesus and arm of Mary as new elements, and the loss of the top of Mary’s head may date to the same campaign. The head has been cut to a smooth plane with a saw, a treatment that sought to make a level base for a newly carved upper part of the head that is now removed and preserved in The Met’s storage. Chips of modern ivory on Mary’s neck and a continuous crack around her face reveal that her face also broke off and was reattached, perhaps as part of the same campaign. There is also minor chipping on the left hand and losses to the draperies around Mary’s feet. The elliptical ivory plug on Mary’s breast and a matching one on her left cheek may indicate the position of the tusk’s original nerve channel

The restorers responsible for the extensive additions to the upper part of the statue also polished the upper part of the figures’ torsos, returning the surface to a glossy, unpatinated state that helps the new elements merge with the surviving medieval carving. Extensive painted decoration is visible in Mary’s hair, veil, and the borders of her cloak, while a distinct red staining is visible on the two raised fingers on Jesus’s right hand. The painted brooch on Mary’s chest appears on the modern, polished surface and must post-date the loss of a metal one, suggesting that the matching paint and gilding on the hems also dates to this post-breakage intervention. The statue arrived at the Museum in a satin-lined leather case that had been made for it in the eighteenth century (see acc. no. 30.95.114b). Perhaps in response to the fall, a nineteenth-century owner also sought to make the statue more stable by plugging the nerve cavity on the base of the statue with wood and affixing it with glue and dowels to a marquetry-decorated base. This series of interventions demonstrates the great lengths taken by modern owners and dealers to ensure the safe display and storage of the statue and a desire to restore to it, after a traumatic event, a semblance of completeness.

Further Reading:

James J Rorimer, Ultra-Violet Rays and their Use in the Examination of Works of Art (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1931): p. 30, fig. 20.

Elizabeth Sears, "Ivory and Ivory Workshops in Medieval Paris," in Images in Ivory: Precious Objects of the Gothic Age, ed. Peter Barnet (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997): pp. 18-37.

Tom Williamson and Glynn Davies, Medieval Ivories, 1200-1500: Part 1 (London: Victoria & Albert Publishing, 2014): pp. 23-82.

Charles T. Little, "The Art of Gothic Ivories: Studies at the Crossroads," Sculpture Journal 23 (2014): pp. 13-29.

Sarah Guérin, "Introduction to Gothic Ivories," in Gothic Ivories Calouste Gulbekian Collection (London: Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers Ltd., 2015): pp. 16-35.


Catalogue Entry by Scott Miller, Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial and Research Collections Specialist, Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters, 2020–2022

Theodore M. Davis, New York

Pavillon de Marsan, Palais du Louvre. "Les Fastes du Gothique: Le Siècle de Charles V," October 1981–January 1982.

Rorimer, James J. Ultra-Violet Rays and their Use in the Examination of Works of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1931. p. 30, fig. 20.

Rorimer, James J. "Part 2, The Theodore M. Davis Bequest: The European Decorative Arts." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, o.s., 26, no. 3 (March 1931). p. 24, fig. 2.

Little, Charles T. "Ivoires et art gothique." Revue de l'art 46 (1979). p. 63, fig. 18–19.

Baron, Françoise, ed. Les fastes du Gothique: Le siècle de Charles V. Paris: Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, 1981. no. 131, pp. 176–77.

Randall Jr., Richard H. Masterpieces of Ivory from the Walters Art Gallery. Walters Art Gallery, 1985. p. 202.

Avril, François, ed. L'art au temps des rois maudits: Philippe le Bel et ses fils, 1285-1328. Paris: Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1998. pp. 146–47, 175.

Gaborit-Chopin, Danielle. Ivoires Médiévaux, Ve-XVe siècle. Paris: Musée du Louvre, 2003. p. 372.

Lowden, John, and John Cherry. Medieval Ivories and Works of Art: The Thomson Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario Catalogue. Ontario: Paul Holberton Publishing, 2008. p. 48.

Williamson, Paul, and Glyn Davies. Medieval Ivory Carvings, 1200–1550. Vol. 1. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 2014. p. 43.