When was this ivory sculpture made?

This ivory sculpture of the Virgin and Child was carved in France c. 1325-1350 CE. Sculptures of the Virgin and Child grew increasingly popular during the 1300s. Sculptures in this era were typified by a greater naturalism and sense of movement compared to the art from the preceding Romanesque and early Gothic styles, This trend can be observed in the swaying S-shape of the Virgin’s body in this sculpture.

In the early Middle Ages a group of tribes known as the Franks formed the Kingdom of France. The Frankish Capetian dynasty ruled France from 987 to 1792. This dynasty had strong ties to the church, and they often surrounded themselves with clerics as advisors. In 1328, around the time this sculpture was carved, the Capetian king Philip VI ascended the French throne. He ruled over chaotic years: France and England were soon to be engaged in the Hundred Years War (1337-1453), and in the mid-1300s, the plague known as the Black Death killed nearly a third of France's population.  Despite such hardship, this period gave rise to some of the most sophisticated art in medieval France.
 

Why was this ivory sculpture made, and how was it used? 

This type of statuette was made for worship, especially private worship. At this time, public worship was falling out of favor for the upper class. They preferred small private chapels and designated spaces within the home, adorned with icons and statuettes like the one we see here. We can imagine a collection of sculptures and small paintings in a nobleman’s bed chamber or in a domestic shrine, creating a private setting for one’s personal faith, as well as an expression of social status. The patron could choose not only specific saints but also specific representations of those saints, like this very courtly Virgin and Child. Reproduction of iconography in regionally consistent styles made it easy to produce these images in quantity while also fostering standardization and order, which helped the church ensure orthodoxy of religious belief and practice. 

 

How was this ivory sculpture made?

This elegant sculpture was carved from the curving, conical shape of an elephant’s tusk. It took skill and experience to carve the hollow tusk into a naturalistic ivory figure. The ivory used for this sculpture likely comes from the African Savannah elephant. The ivory from these elephants was better suited for sculpture than the ivory from Asian elephants from India because the African tusks were much larger. In the later 1200s and 1300s, the price of ivory from African Savannah elephant tusks fell due to rising availability. Artists capitalized on this economic shift and began creating a growing number of ivory sculptures. These sculptures came in standardized forms, as evidenced by the similar fourteenth-century French ivory pictured above. It was not uncommon for the Virgin to be shown holding a lily scepter, a symbol of purity, as this particular Virgin and Child probably once held—you can see its fragmentary remains in her right hand. This now-monochromatic figure was originally adorned with gilding and bright colors. Although much of this eye-catching design has worn away, traces of these patterns can be spotted through close observation of the lower border of the mantle, where circles and diamond shapes remain. The flat and undecorated back of the sculpture, as well as the dowel hole in this base, suggest that this statuette was once the centerpiece of a tabernacle.

Who made this ivory sculpture? 

The artist who sculpted this Virgin and Child is anonymous, but by placing it in the company of other similar pieces, we can learn something of its origin. The roundness of the face, as well as the mantle which drops diagonally from shoulder to hip, in comparison to works such as Virgin and Child of 1275 pictured above, help date this piece to the mid-1300s. Other features also correspond to courtly ivories of this period. The sense of movement and layering in the robe impart a naturalism to Mary's stance, reinforced by her S-shaped posture. The overall profile of the sculpture is symmetrical, with the baby Jesus balancing the negative space left by Mary's swaying posture. The eye contact between Mary and Jesus suggests the affinity between parent and child. 

Where was this ivory sculpture produced? 

This sculpture was one of countless similar representations of the Virgin and Child made in France during the 1300s. Though this type of sculpture was very common, regional differences are often observable, and these can help narrow down the region of origin. Generally, Mary’s appearance can be described as growing fuller as one moves east from Paris, with her face and head becoming larger and wider. Many such sculptures come from Burgundy and Lorraine, which tended to display this wider face, a scepter of roses, and the Christ child higher on her shoulder. The WAM’s piece, on the other hand, has a slimmer face and profile, and a lower hold on Jesus, and at one point probably held a scepter of lilies. These features suggest that this piece was carved closer to Paris, a vibrant medieval center (as suggested by this photo of the medieval church of Notre Dame in Paris). It could well have been a product of a royal workshop, given its sophisticated detail and naturalistic pose.

 

Where did this ivory sculpture go? 

The elephant tusks used to make French Gothic ivory sculptures traveled along trade routes that can be reconstructed by scholars. Many tusks were probably transported from Diouboye, in present day eastern Senegal, to Paris. The Diouboye community would have traded tusks for material goods such as the cloth, beads, and salt offered by Mande traders from the Empire of Mali. Following a treacherous journey northward along the Mediterranean coast, this ivory would eventually be bought by Parisian workshops. 

Completed sculptures like WAM’s Virgin and Child were purchased by wealthy individuals, who could then pass the piece down as a family heirloom for generations to come, before it eventually entered the art market. According to WAM’s curatorial records, this Virgin and Child was said to have been found in 1860 in the church of Lagny-sur-Marne, east of Paris, and was owned by a private family from then until it was sold to the dealer Louis Carré in 1940; Carré sold it the following year to WAM. 

What does this ivory sculpture tell us about the medieval globe?

The profusion of ivory sculptures made in Gothic France could never have come into being were it not for a plentiful supply of ivory. The ivory used in the Virgin and Child highlights how trade routes across the Mediterranean and Europe connected the medieval globe. Trade routes across land were slow and costly, so merchants established new bulk shipping routes across the Mediterranean Sea in the late 1200s century. Throughout the 1200s and 1300s, the ivory trade was very closely linked to the international markets that supplied dyestuffs to the textile industries of Northern Europe. The new water trade routes across the Atlantic and Mediterranean connecting Africa to Europe resulted in an increased supply of ivory and also lowered its price. With an increased supply and relatively low price, the Gothic period saw a new range of ivory object types including statuettes like this one. 

Thomas Leimkuhler, Class of 2025, College of the Holy Cross
Andrew Whinney, Class of 2025, College of the Holy Cross
Ryan Mulcahy, Class of 2025, College of the Holy Cross

Ivory Virgin and Child: Sources and Further Reading

Barnet, Editor. Images in Ivory: Precious Objects of the Gothic Age. The Detroit Institute of Arts Founders Society, 1997.

Cams, Paula Mae. 2014. “Playing the Fool: La Folie Tristan on Two French Gothic Ivories.” Sculpture Journal 23 (1): 51–63. doi:10.3828/sj.2014.6 

Chapuis, Julien. “Patronage at the Early Valois Courts (1328–1461).” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. 

Cristiani, Maria Laura Testi. "Pisano, Giovanni." Grove Art Online (2003). https://www.oxfordartonline.com/groveart/view/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.001.0001/oao-9781884446054-e-90000370815. 

Daul, K., Ardagh, John Anthony Charles and Ehrlich, Blake. "Paris." Encyclopedia Britannica, September 12, 2024. 

Duprat, Cl. Arts et Traditions Populaires 6, no. 3/4 (1958): 355–56. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41002709. 

Forsyth, William H. “The Virgin and Child in French Fourteenth Century Sculpture A Method of Classification.” The Art Bulletin 39, no. 3 (1957): 171–82. https://doi.org/10.2307/3047711.

Green, Malcolm, and Nicholas Pickwoad. “Gilding.” Oxford Art Online, 2003. doi:10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T032215.

Guérin, Sarah M. "Ivory and the Ties That Bind", Fordham University Press (2009). 

Guérin, Sarah M. “An Ivory Virgin at the Metropolitan Museum, New York, in a Gothic Sculptor’s Œuvre.” The Burlington Magazine 154, no. 1311 (2012): 394–402. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23232967.

Guérin, Sarah M. “Ivory Carving in the Gothic Era, Thirteenth–Fifteenth Centuries.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. 

Hildburgh, W. L. “Medieval English Alabaster Figures of the Virgin and Child-I: Our Lady Standing.” The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 88, no. 515 (1946): 30–35. http://www.jstor.org/stable/869142. 

Jenner, Katherine. "Little Books on Art, Our Lady in Art". A.C. McClurg & CO. (1910).

Kirby, Jo, author, P. T., author Craddock, Jonathan, author Stephenson, A., author Broderick, 

Little, Charles T. 2014. “The Art of Gothic Ivories: Studies at the Crossroads.” Sculpture Journal 23 (1): 13–29. doi:10.3828/sj.2014.3. 

Mâle, Emile, Uniform Title: Art religieux du XIIIe siècle en France. English, and Dora. Nussey. 1958. The Gothic Image : Religious Art in France of the Thirteenth Century Emile Mâle ; Translated by Dora Nussey. Cathedral Library. Harper and Row. 

Miller, Anne-Hélène. 2014. “Revisiting Urban Encomia in Fourteenth-Century Paris: Poetics of Translation, Universalism, and the Pilgrim City.” Viator 45 (3): 193–210. doi:10.1484/J.VIATOR.5.102926. 

Milliken, William M. “Virgin and Child, French, Early Fourteenth Century.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 28, no. 10 (1941): 147–55. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25140958. 

Stokstad, Marilyn. "Medieval Art". Westview Press (2004).

Tilley, Arthur Augustus. 1964. Medieval France, a Companion to French Studies Edited by Arthur Tilley. Hafner. 

William H. Monroe. “A French Gothic Ivory of the Virgin and Child.” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 9 (1978): 7–29. https://doi.org/10.2307/4115929. 

Williamson, Paul, and Glyn Davies. Medieval ivory carvings: 1200-1550. London: V & A Publishing, 2014. 

Wixom, William D. “A Fourteenth-Century Madonna and Child.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 50, no. 1 (1963): 14–22. 

Worcester Art Museum object file for 1940.27.