Lot n° 79
Estimation :
3000 - 4000
EUR
RARE REPRESENTATION OF THE VIRGIN based on an anthropomorphi - Lot 79
RARE REPRESENTATION OF THE VIRGIN based on an anthropomorphic crescent moon. Italy or South Germany 16th century. Wood with remains of gilding and polychromy. Visible lacks. H.90. Old Italian collection; French collection since the 1990s. The very expressionist face of the Virgin was initially surmounted by a cloth veil covering the skull. Examples of the same type can be found in Burgundy, for example. As for the crescent moon at the feet of the Virgin, it symbolizes the pre-eminence of Mary over the earthly world and her victory over sin. Indeed, the moon illustrates fickleness and corruption, personified here by the face of a sinner. At the end of the Middle Ages, the Virgin resting on a crescent moon also makes reference to the texts of the Apocalypse, which assimilate the Immaculate Conception to a woman descending from heaven on a crescent. Exhibitions: -"The Face of Mary in the Christian West" Abbey of Saint-Antoine in Isère, 1995. "The face in all its states". Refectoire des Cordeliers, Paris, 2010.
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