{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O312581"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O312581/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AD1000/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AD1000/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AD1000","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GB2098","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GB2209","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GB2212","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GB2238","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GB2240","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GB2244","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GB2247","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GB2253","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O312581/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O312581","accessionNumber":"A.549-1910","objectType":"Statuette","titles":[{"title":"The Virgin and Child","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"Ivory was used all over Europe for religious works of art. It was often combined with precious metals and usually took the form of relief panels, for book covers, portable altars and caskets. An almost unbroken tradition of ivory carving extends from the Roman and Byzantine empires until the end of the 14th century. From about 1250, Paris became the centre of production for figures and reliefs intended for private devotion.\r\nThis ivory statuette though, is a fake, and almost certainly made by a nineteenth century carver copying a fourteenth-century ivory. The production of ivories in historicizing styles in the 19th century flourished in a number of centres, including Cologne, Milan, Toulouse and Cordoba. Although not always made to deceive, unscrupulous dealers often sold them as genuine objects to their clients.\n\nThree dimensional images of the Virgin and Child were ubiquitous from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries, produced in a wide range of materials and sizes and testifying the overwhelming devotion to th Virgin. Together with the Crucifixion, statues and statuettes of the Virgin and Child were the pricipal objects of devotion in the Christian Church, and vast numbers were made for ecclesisastical, monastic and private worship.\n\nThis Virgin and Child is not a copy of a known piece but instead an intelligent nineteenth-century creation in the Gothic manner, taking its stylistic leads from late thirteenth-century prototypes. It is an ambitious forgery, and its original painted and gilded decoration - if this was ever complete rather than always being distressed - must have given it further credibility. The proportions of the figures and the carving of the faces and draperies are admirably executed, but the wear, staining and filled holes seem to be artificially contrived and the whole noe fails to convince. ","physicalDescription":"The Virgin stands wearing an integrally-carved crown with eight fleurons and a long dress falling in folds to her feet. She holds a sceptre in her left, supporting the Child with her right. The Child holds an apple in his right hand, his left placed on Mary's breast. The reverse of the sculpture is flat, only the Virgin's veil and the back of the Christ-Child being carved. The statuette is mounted on a separate irregular octagonal base of ivory with mouldings top and bottom. Good condition, but with vertical cracks throughout. It has been painted, but only traces remain. ","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"ivory","id":"AAT11857"}],"techniques":[{"text":"gilding","id":"AAT53789"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Elephant ivory, painted and gilded","categories":[{"text":"Christianity","id":"THES48978"},{"text":"Religion","id":"THES48900"},{"text":"Sculpture","id":"THES48896"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"SCP","id":"THES48600"},"images":["2006AD1000","2013GB2098","2013GB2209","2013GB2212","2013GB2238","2013GB2240","2013GB2244","2013GB2247","2013GB2253"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"001","id":"THES395444"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Statuette","id":""}],[{"text":"Fake","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"France","id":"x28849"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1850","earliest":"1845-01-01","latest":"1854-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Salting Bequest.","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"40.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"including base","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"35","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"without the base ","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"12.3","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"at base","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Formerly in the Frederic Spitzer collection, Paris until 1893 (Spitzer sale Paris - 27 April 1893, no. 116, pl. IV); then George Salting collection. Bequeathed to the V&A by Salting in 1910. ","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Statuette, ivory, the Virgin and Child, French, mid-19th century, copy of a 14th century original","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"'Salting Bequest (A. 70 to A. 1029-1910) / Murray Bequest (A. 1030 to A. 1096-1910)'. In: <u>List of Works of Art Acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum (Department of Architecture and Sculpture)</u>. London: Printed under the Authority of his Majesty's Stationery Office, by Eyre and Spottiswoode, Limited, East Harding Street, EC, p. 90"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Longhurst, Margaret H. <u>Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory</u>. Part II. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1929, p. 32"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Trusted, Marjorie, ed. <u>The Making of Sculpture. The Materials and Techniques of European Sculpture</u>. London: 2007, p. 177, pl. 330"},{"reference":{"text":"Williamson, Paul and Davies, Glyn, <u>Medieval Ivory Carvings, 1200-1550</u>, (in 2 parts), V&A Publishing, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2014","id":"AUTH332632"},"details":"part 1, pp. 74, 75","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Williamson, Paul and Davies, Glyn, <u>Medieval Ivory Carvings, 1200-1550</u>, (in 2 parts), V&A Publishing, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2014, part 1, pp. 74, 75, cat. no. 20"}],"production":"This statuette is copy / fake of a 14th century original.","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"Virgin and Child","id":"N4691"}],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"sceptre","id":"AAT214161"},{"text":"apple","id":"x30082"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["A.549-1910"],"accessionNumberNum":"549","accessionNumberPrefix":"A","accessionYear":1910,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":["2019LV6929"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-06-27","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-24","availableToBook":true}}