Cologne circa 1290/1320
A Cologne carved wood figure of the Virgin enthroned, circa 1290/1320
Carved in the round, the back of the throne flattened. With remains of older polychromy, apparently partially overpainted. A depiction of the Virgin seated on a block-like throne designed for a frontal and slightly lowered viewpoint. The crowned Madonna holds the clothed infant Christ on Her left knee, supporting Him with Her hand. The stark frontality of the depiction is ameliorated by the lively play of drapery in the Virgin's cloak, with weighty rounded and vertical folds contrasting against the simplicity of Her girded gown. The facial features and general composition of this work allow us to locate it to the Rhineland area, more specifically Cologne, and date the piece to around 1300.
The Virgin's right hand and the arms and left foot of the child lacking. Some vertical hairline cracks. Wear throughout. Height 37 cm.
Literature
For more information on statues of the Virgin from Cologne at the time around 1300, for example the Madonna Enthroned in the parish church of Saint Remigius in Remagen-Unkelbach, see exhib. cat.: Rhein und Maas. Kunst und Kultur 800-1400, ed. by Anton Legner, Cologne 1972 (exhibition in the Schnütgen Museum, Cologne), p. 359, cat. no. N 2, illus.