”VIRGIN WITH CHILD ON THE THRONE”. BOXWOOD, BRONZE AND ROCK CRYSTAL. 19TH CENTURY.

Virgin and Child Enthroned. Boxwood, bronze, and carved rock crystal. 19th century. On a carpeted base rests a second bronze base, the same metal from which the throne is made. This throne stands on four low columns with smooth shafts and capitals decorated with volutes and simplified plant forms, decorative elements that are repeated at the waist, combined with oval blue beads. The square backrest, openwork with highly stylized scrolls, is topped with four carved rock crystal pearls. Seated on the throne is the Virgin Mary, wearing a crown that echoes the decorative elements of the throne, dressed in a tunic and mantle, and holding a book. The Christ Child, on her lap, also gazes forward, blessing with his right hand. The iconography, as is typical, derives from Byzantine models: among the types of Theotokos, the Panakranta or Panacranta depicts Mary seated on a throne, with the Child on her lap, both facing the viewer, reflecting the decrees of the Fourth Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon (451 AD). These images arrived in Europe during the Romanesque period, shaping Western iconography. This work can be compared to the 13th-century Italo-Byzantine icon in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. (United States), or the carving of the "Virgin of the Battles" from the Monastery of San Pedro de Arlanza, made around 1225-1235 and now in the Museum of Burgos, or the mid-17th-century Romanesque image in the Museum of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires (Argentina), although there are many other examples. However, details such as the decoration of the capitals, the anatomy of the two figures, the scrolls of the throne and crown, the folds of the drapery, a certain air of life in the faces despite their stylization, the symmetry present in various parts of the work, etc., indicate that the carving belongs to a more recent period. Specifically, it belongs to the style known as Neo-Gothic: this style was inspired by works from the 13th to the 15th-16th centuries and opposed the preceding Neoclassical style; it originated in England around the mid-18th century and spread throughout continental Europe in the 19th century.

· Size: 10x10x24 cms