Romanesque Madonna and Child, Sedes Sapientiae

Rare enthroned Virgin and Child in limestone carved in very high relief. The Virgin holds the Child between her two knees in perfect frontality, a characteristic of the first Romanesque virgins known as Sedes Sapientiae. Mary is wearing a crown decorated with rectangular and diamond-shaped cabochons, her face in an elongated oval with protruding cheekbones and eyeballs. The throne, of fine quality of execution, has solid armrests with two arches resting on ringed cylindrical Romanesque columns with a molded base. Christ is represented with aged features recalling the anteriority of Christ over the Virgin. He adopts the same attitude as Marie, a shoulder strap diagonally across his chest. If parallels exist with the Auvergne Romanesque virgins, the more refined style of the characters and the throne, the geological analysis of the limestone lead us to place this sculpture in Burgundy, Champagne or Lorraine, in the second half of the 12th century.

Romanesque Virgins in stone are rare, and preserved for the most part in monuments (Mozac, Perse, Bonneval, Vinnac, Corneilla-de-Conflent) or in the collections of the Louvre Museum (Virgins from Crespière and Charters). Our sculpture comes from a Romanesque church tympanum. The stone was analyzed by Annie Blanc, geologist. This white limestone may come from the Upper Jurassic formations of northern Burgundy, Tonnerre and Auxerrois.