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15th Polychrome Wooden Sculpture of Saint Barbara. Mechelen.

$34,596.86
£25,186.23
€29,000
CA$47,190.08
A$52,834.07
CHF 27,702.64
MX$652,797.68
NOK 349,070.40
SEK 329,508.55
DKK 220,703.03
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About the Item

This sculpture represents the maiden of Nicomedia kept in a tower with three windows where her father locked her away. In her right hand she holds an open book that records her meditations during her confinement, and her left hand might have originally held the palm of martyrdom. The figure wears a floral crown. The poupées de Malines — Mechelen dolls — are small sculptures, generally of medium bulk (with minimally worked backs), produced in the small Belgian city, situated north of Flanders between Brussels and Antwerp, which underwent very important economic and cultural developments at the end of the fifteenth century and beginning of the sixteenth with the incorporation of the Dutch into the Spanish Hapsburg Empire. This kind of sculpture, made for the aristocracy and bourgeoisie, were produced particularly in the period between 1504 and 1530. While the majority of Mechelen dolls represent female figures, there are some known male figures and groups. The Virgin with Child in her arms is among the most common models in Mechelen workshops (generally, the Virgin holds the Child in her right arm). Another figure that stands out in Mechelen production is Saint Barbara, of whom numerous representations are known. She is identifiable thanks to attributes like the palm of martyrdom, the book, the sword, and the tower. One also finds representations of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, Saint Ursula and Saint Margaret, as well as the Virgin reading. The less common male figures usually represent Saint Peter the Apostle, Saint Sebastian, Saint Augustine, Saint Christopher, and Saint Roch. These works were often made with linden wood, pear, pine, oak, or walnut. Their size, no greater than 30 or 40 cm in height, endowed them with a certain transportability and favoured their use as devotional objects and their commercialization. The carved wood is stuccoed and then covered with clay bole before the application of gold leaf, which was stencilled and incised, in the same way that sculptures were polychromed in Spain. These figures present quite similar formal attributes: oval face, curved forehead and recessed hairline, small almond-shaped eyes, thin eyebrows, round cheeks and small noses and mouths. The Mechelen dolls usually bear markings: the coat of arms of the city of Mechelen, with three blades within a shield (represented by three vertical bars), which guaranteed the quality of the wood, and the initial of the name of the city; the letter "M" assured the quality of the materials used in the production of the sculpture. In rare cases markings indicating the authorship of the polychromy have been identified, but in general the dolls do not carry signs identifying their makers.
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 11.82 in (30 cm)Width: 4.73 in (12 cm)Depth: 1.97 in (5 cm)
  • Materials and Techniques:
    Gold,Wood,Polychromed
  • Place of Origin:
    Belgium
  • Period:
    15th Century and Earlier
  • Date of Manufacture:
    1500
  • Condition:
    Wear consistent with age and use.
  • Seller Location:
    Marbella, ES
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU3044345411642

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