Title

Virgin with Child. Altarpiece with the Apotheosis of the Virgin

Generic classification

Object

Date

Century

Cultural context / style

Dimensions

Material

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Inventory Number in Current Collection

Object history

This sculpture is the main image of an altarpiece made up of fifteen other painted panels, all dedicated to the Apotheosis of the Virgin. According to Gilman Proske, the carving was probably executed in León at the end of the 15th century (Gilman Proske, 1951). For his part, Franco Mata endorsed this hypothesis by virtue of various stylistic details of the sculpture, such as the folds of the V-shaped dress, the pose of the image, the oval face, or the type of hair, aspects that, in his opinion, brought the carving closer to other sculptures preserved in the museums of León and Astorga (Franco Mata, 2010, p. 222).

The place of origin is unknown, as well as the circumstances in which it disappeared from its original location. We do know that in the early twentieth century it was part of the collection of Adolphe Singher, located in the French town of Le Mans, as it was sold in Hotel Drouot, Paris, in 1912, along with other works from the Singher collection. In that catalog appears the altar referred to as No. 458, described as a large altarpiece: "It is formed in the center by a statuette-applique of carved, painted and gilded wood, representing the Virgin standing on a console and protected by fifteen panels of painted wood, four of which, in the upper part, show saints with their attributes. The five central panels depict St. John the Baptist standing holding the lamb lying on a book, the Annunciation, the Assumption of the Virgin, the Adoration of the Magi and St. Lawrence standing, holding the grill and an open book. At the bottom, six panels each present two saints with their attributes, arranged on a background that simulates a rich damascene cloth. These panels are separated from each other by carved and gilded wooden uprights, which simulate Gothic buttresses, and by crosspieces molded or decorated with garlands" (Leman, 1912, no. 458. Translated from the original French text).

The description of the piece was accompanied in the aforementioned catalog by a photograph in which the remarkable size of the set can be appreciated, although the text does not offer any information about the provenance of the work. A copy of this catalog, preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France offers a handwritten detail in the margin of the piece that perhaps can be revealing of the trajectory followed by the set, in handwritten note appears annotated "Madrazzo 10.000" Also under the photograph appears written "10.Would it be sold for 10,000 francs in 1912 in Paris? Would the painter, collector and art dealer Raimundo de Madrazo, in those years in Paris, buy it, then, and through him it could pass to Archer Milton Huntington, founder of the Hispanic Society of America?

Description

The Virgin and child are placed on a golden bracket decorated with oak leaves. These motifs contrast with the blue background of the panel on which the sculpture is placed, in which stars and golden rays appear in relief. The upper part is topped by a canopy of gothic tracery, also gilded. The sculptural group has lost the right forearm of the child and part of the fingers of the Virgin's right hand. The Virgin wears a blue skirt with a golden border, as well as a golden mantle; she wears the crown of the queen of heaven and her long golden hair falls over her shoulders (Gilman, 1932, pp. 176-177. Franco Mata, 2010, p. 222).

Locations

• Unknown date

  province

  Possibly from the province of León (Spain)

• 1912

  private collection

  Adolphe Singher, Le Mans (France) *

• post. 1912 - present

  museum

  The Hispanic Society of America, New York (United States)