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Standing Virgin and Child
Pottery: Unidentified Orvieto pottery (Probably)
Tin-glazed earthenware painted in manganese and green
Greyish-buff earthenware. Tin-glazed greyish-white on the exterior and painted in manganese and green. The Virgin stands holding the infant Christ in her left arm. Christ wears a skirt, and she wears a long pleated gown and a cloak over her head which falls down over her shoulders to the ground. The Virgin's costume is decorated with vertical rows of slanting manganese and green strokes between wide green and narrow manganese stripes. Christ's skirt has close-set stripes of alternate colours. The figure of the Virgin is hollow and the head was made separately and set into the body before firing.
History note: Collection of either Signor Avvocato Marcioni or Cavaliere Capitano Lucatelli; Sotheby's, 16-17 February 1914, Catalogue of the collections of early Italian pottery formed by Signor Avvocato Marcioni and Cavaliere Capitano Lucatelli of Orvieto, lot 151 & pl. IV; Lethbridge; Sotheby's, 18 June 1928, lot 15; Alfred Spero; Dr J.W.L. Glaisher; Mrs W.D. (Frances Louisa) Dickson, Bournemouth.
Given by Mrs W.D. Dickson
Height: 32 cm
Method of acquisition: Given (1938-01-18) by Dickson, W. D. (Frances Louisa), Mrs
14th Century
15th Century#
Circa
1350
CE
-
1450
CE
A thermoluminescence test by the Oxford Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art (report dated 23 February 1994, sample 581m36) estimated that the figure was last fired between 400 and 650 years ago (1344-1594). However, the colouring and style suggest that it was not later than about 1450.
Label text from the exhibition ‘Madonnas and Miracles: The Holy Home in Renaissance Italy’, on display at The Fitzwilliam Museum from 7 March until 4 June 2017: This statuette of the nursing Virgin is a rare survival of the kind of devotional image that would have graced many a humble home. The Virgin is stately and imposing, yet offers a reassuringly human image of motherhood; she and the Christ Child both wear everyday green-striped skirts, and have no haloes to mark them out as holy.
Late-medieval maiolica figures are extremely rare. A woman holding a shield charged with the Monaldeschi arms formed lot 152 in the Marcioni-Lucatelli sale at which this one was also sold. A standing woman holding a bowl is in the Palazzo di Venezia, Rome (PV 165), and a man seated beside a bowl was formerly in the Moretti collection. Smaller moulded figures and moulds have been found at a kiln site in the via della Cava, Orvieto.
Decoration
composed of
copper-green
manganese
Exterior
composed of
tin-glaze
Front-back
Depth 18 cm
Body
Inscription present: rectangular with cut corners and dark blue border
Inscription present: circular, printed in white reserved on a black ground
Accession number: EC.2-1938
Primary reference Number: 47359
Old object number: 5077
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Applied Arts
This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:
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IIIF Manifest
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Standing Virgin and Child" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/47359 Accessed: 2024-11-05 14:44:29
To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:
{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/47359
|title=Standing Virgin and Child
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-05 14:44:29|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
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https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/api/v1/objects/object-47359
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<figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Standing Virgin and Child</figcaption>
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