A WALNUT FIGURE OF THE VIRGIN ADORING THE CHILD, UPPER RHINE, CIRCA 1500
Walnut, stained dark, Upper Rhine, c. 1500 (previously Oertel coll.)
The front right of the plinth is an addition. Mounted on a wooden base. 87 x 69 x 16 cm (not incl. base).
A walnut figure of the Virgin adoring the Child, Upper Rhine, circa 1500. The reverse flattened, the previous polychromy was removed before 1913 and the wood has been stained dark. The Virgin is depicted kneeling and turned to the left with her hands folded in front of her chest in adoration of the Child, who lays before her wrapped in a fold of her cloak. Her right knee is visible beneath the rich drapery of her robe, and her hip-length curls are held together by a band around her forehead. The figure was presumably originally part of a shrine relief showing a group figures at the Nativity. Several works supporting the localisation to the Upper Rhine region include the "Maria mit dem Kinde" (Upper Rhine master, circa 1500) and the winged altarpiece of Wettingen Abbey near Baden, commissioned in 1516, which shows a similar Nativity relief and is now kept in the Berlin Museums.
Provenance
Dr. Richard Oertel collection, Munich (purchased 1897 from the art dealer Böhler in Munich). - Sold in Lepke Auction, Berlin, 6.-7.5.1913, Lot 174. - Sold in 191th Neumeister Auction, Munich, 5.11.1979, lot 21. - Since in Westphalia private collection.
Literature
For the comparisons, see: Theodor Demmler: Die Bildwerke in Holz, Stein und Ton. Großplastik, Berlin/Leipzig 1930 (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Die Bildwerke des Deutschen Museums. Bd. 3), pg. 148-150 u. 158-160, Nr. 7010 & 425 illus.