The ''Virgin and Child from the Sainte-Chapelle'' is an

ivory Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally from elephants) and teeth of animals, that consists mainly of dentine, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mammals is ...

sculpture probably created in the 1260s, currently in the possession of the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

Museum in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. The museum itself describes it as "unquestionably the most beautiful piece of

ronde-bosse ''Ronde-bosse'', ''en ronde bosse'' or encrusted enamel is an enamelling technique developed in France in the late 14th century that produces small three-dimensional figures, or reliefs, largely or entirely covered in enamel. The new method in ...

n the roundivory carving ever made",The

Virgin and Child from the Sainte-Chapelle
retrieved June 21, 2015. and the finest individual work of art in the wave of ivory sculpture coming out of Paris in the 13th and 14th centuries.The

, "The Virgin and Child from the Sainte-Chapelle", informational material available at the museum.

History

After a relative shortage of ivory in Europe during the 11th and 12th centuries, the material once again became in abundance with new trade opening up on the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

ports, particularly those of

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

. The ivory workshops of Paris were the most admired ones, and the ''Virgin and Child'' must have originated from one of these. It is known to have been in the possession of the

Sainte-Chapelle The Sainte-Chapelle (; en, Holy Chapel) is a royal chapel in the Gothic style, within the medieval Palais de la Cité, the residence of the Kings of France until the 14th century, on the Île de la Cité in the River Seine in Paris, France. Co ...

by the late 1270s, as it was recorded in the earliest inventory of the church, written some time between 1265 and 1279. It is believed to have been given to the chapel by its patron, Saint Louis.

Charles V Charles V may refer to: * Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (1500–1558) * Charles V of Naples (1661–1700), better known as Charles II of Spain * Charles V of France (1338–1380), called the Wise * Charles V, Duke of Lorraine (1643–1690) * Infan ...

added a gold plinth and emerald-encrusted ornamentation sometime in the 14th century, but this was removed during the

Revolution In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...

Alexandre Lenoir Marie Alexandre Lenoir (27 December 1761 – 11 June 1839) was a French archaeologist. Self-taught, he devoted himself to saving France's historic monuments, sculptures and tombs from the ravages of the French Revolution, notably those of Basiliqu ...

was the one who salvaged the piece from the collection of the church during the Revolution, and exhibited it in his ''

Musée national des Monuments Français The Musée national des Monuments Français ( en, National Museum of French Monuments) is today a museum of plaster casts of French monuments located in the Palais de Chaillot, 1, place du Trocadéro et du 11 Novembre, Paris, France. It now for ...

''. Later it was in the possession of the wealthy Far-Eastern merchant, Louis Fidel Debruge-Dumenil, and when it was acquired by the Louvre in 1861, this was from the collection of Prince Pierre Soltykoff.

Description

The statue, forty-one cm high, represents the pinnacle of

Gothic art Gothic art was a style of medieval art that developed in Northern France out of Romanesque art in the 12th century AD, led by the concurrent development of Gothic architecture. It spread to all of Western Europe, and much of Northern, Southern and ...

, and the

late medieval The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Europe, the Renai ...

ideal of beauty. The

Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother o ...

is portrayed as a young and slender woman; in appearance representative of the aristocracy of the age. Her hip is slightly protruded – giving the figure an S-shape. On her left arm she is resting the baby

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

, who in turn reaches out his left hand to an apple the Virgin holds up in her right hand. Her robe, with a belt, is almost entirely covered by a coat, all of which is finely decorated with gold. The folds of the cloth are intricately and realistically sculpted towards the bottom. Her narrow, triangular face is surrounded by curly hair and a veil, her eyes are long and narrow, and a slight, playful smile is upon her lips. The sculpture must have gained great popularity almost immediately, as several imitations can be found from the period following its creation. Of note are similar statues in the Taft Museum in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

(formerly in the treasury of Saint-Denis), the

Rijksmuseum The Rijksmuseum () is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough of Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the St ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

, the

Metropolitan Museum The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

in New York and in the museum of

Orléans Orléans (;"Orleans"
(US) and

References

External links

Description page from The Louvre
* http://www.louvre.fr/oeuvre-notices/vierge-l-enfant-de-la-sainte-chapelle {{Commonscat, Vierge à l'Enfant de la Sainte-Chapelle Ivory works of art Gothic sculptures Statues of the Madonna and Child Sculptures of the Louvre by French artists 13th-century sculptures

History

Description

See also

References

Further reading

External links