Sculptural group; France, c. 1900

Sculptural group; France, c. 1900
"Virgin and Child"
Unglazed porcelain; biscuit
Height: 48 cm.

A sculptural group in biscuit porcelain (unglazed), depicting the Virgin and Child, both standing on a rectangular base with a cut-out profile. The Virgin, covered by a wide veil that falls over her head and shoulders, wears a tunic cinched at the waist and a cloak that envelops her entire body; she holds the Child in her arms, resting on her shoulder. The modeling stands out for the serene rendering of the Virgin’s face, with idealized features and a contemplative expression, as well as for the treatment of the drapery, with deep, contrasting folds.

The composition, with its enveloping drapery, ties directly into the tradition of the “Madonna con Bambino” in 18th-century Italian sculpture, which in turn drew on Renaissance and Baroque models that spread this iconographic type—the object of great popular devotion—throughout Europe. Sculptors such as the Sanmartino brothers and the Neapolitan tradition of nativity scenes and domestic religious imagery helped establish this canon of an upright Virgin, with a sweet, slightly tilted face, wrapped in ample cloaks with broken folds, which would be reinterpreted during the 19th century by numerous sculptors and biscuit porcelain manufacturers, in keeping with the widespread religious taste in the decorative arts of the time.