Title

The Birth of the Virgin. Fragment of an altarpiece

Bigarny, Felipe [style of] (Langres, Borgoña, ca. 1473 - Toledo, 1542)

Generic classification

Object

Date

Century

Cultural context / style

Dimensions

Material

Technique

Iconography / Theme

Provenance

Current location

Inventory Number in Current Collection

Object history

This relief was part of an altarpiece that no longer exists. Nine panels from the ensemble have been located, eight of them in the Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Art Museum (Indiana University, USA) and one in Hearst Castle (San Simeon, California, USA). The scenes preserved from the set at the Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Art Museum are as follows: Annunciation, Birth of Christ, Birth of the Virgin, Betrothal of the Virgin, Visitation, Adoration of the Magi, Presentation of Christ in the Temple and Flight into Egypt. For its part, in Hearst Castle there is a relief with the Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple (Stratton, 1994; Merino de Cáceres and Martínez Ruiz, 2012).

In addition, according to information provided by Caleigh Law, assistant to the Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Art Museum, there is a sculpture of the Assumption of Mary in the Loyola University Museum of Art (Chicago, United States) that would also be part of the altarpiece. This piece was attributed to the circle of Philip Bigarny by Stratton (1994).

Although the reliefs have been attributed to Philip Bigarny because of their formal characteristics, we do not consider this hypothesis to be correct. Although we do not have documentation in this regard, we are inclined to think that they come from Burgos due to the style and way of working the figures, as well as their polychromy. Be that as it may, we cannot determine the exact origin of this work nor the moment when it left the country. We have news that Pedro Ruiz, an antique dealer established in Alava, sold the relief of the Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple that is currently located in Hearst Castle at the beginning of the 20th century. Could this antique dealer have been responsible for the sale and export of the whole set?

In the second third of the 20th century these eight reliefs were in the private collection of William Armstrong Fairburn, in Morristown (New Jersey, United States). Subsequently, after his death, the assets were dispersed, being sold in 1962 by Savoy Art & Auction Galleries (New York, United States). That same year they were acquired by Edward R. Lubin, an antique dealer residing in Manhattan (New York, United States). Finally, James S. Adams bought the eight reliefs in memory of his wife, Marvelle Warne Adams, and gave them to the Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Art Museum, where they are currently housed.

Description

This relief represents the Birth of the Virgin Mary, who is in the foreground next to two women who take care of her. In the background is St. Joachim, who looks at his daughter and, finally, in the background, St. Anne with another woman who takes care of her. The scene takes place in a bourgeois habitation and in the background there is an opening where the landscape can be seen. The monumentality of the figures, as well as their polychromy, refers to the Castilian environment, specifically to Burgos.

Locations

• XVI^th c.

  province

  Possible origin in the province of Burgos, Burgos (Spain)

• ca. 1962

  private collection

  William Armstrong Fairburn, Morristown (United States) *

• ca. 1962

  auction house

  Savoy Art & Auction Galleries, New York (United States)

• 1962 - 1965

  dealer/antiquarian

  Edward R. Lubin, New York (United States) *

• 1965 - present

  museum

  Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, Bloomington (United States)