18th Century Italian Neoclassical Carved Wooden Madonna With Child

Wonderful neoclassical carved wooden altar with beautiful gilded angels. Italy, circa 1760-1780. Weathered, small losses and old repairs.

Beautiful weathered oak Madonna with child, France, circa 1750. Weathered. Measurement includes the wooden base.

Very beautiful wooden Christ figure with a strong expression and traces of its original color, Italy, circa 1750. Weathered and small losses, old repair...

Wonderful small tabernacle that once graced a church altar. Beautiful original silverleaf and faux marble paint. weathered, small losses. Italy circa 1780  

Spectacular and very decorative piece. Carved wooden reliquary bust representing a Saint figure. Beautiful traces of its original silver and gilding. Weathered, small losses and with...

Very rare hand pair carved wooden reliquary shrines with wonderful decoration and color/gilding, Italy, circa 1750 Weathered, small losses and old re...

Although the 18th century, the period of the Enlightenment in France, spawned thinkers who criticised the privileges of the clergy and the truthfulness of certain dogmas, the Roman Catholic faith was very much present in everyday life. Since king Louis XIV had issued the Edict of Fontainebleau in 1685, Protestantism was banned. This Madonna with child illustrates the daily practice of faith. Like many 18th-century Madonna statues...

Carved wooden angel from Private Chapel in Provence. Wonderful detail in Angel's hair and draped dress. Figure is mounted on an iron stand.

An Italian Rococo sarcophagus-shaped wooden chest of bombé rectangular form with richly carved gilt decoration on a distressed ebonized ground. The hinged pagoda top lid is skillfull...

18th century Italian hand carved and painted wood Madonna statue depicts the virgin Mary in contemplative prayer, and poised in triumph over evil. Orig...

Terracotta figurative relief wall sculpture presenting the Virgin Mary sited while she’s holding her lively Child. Height 22.4" - 57 cm. Width 9" - 23 cm. Depth 6.2" - 16 cm.

Bronze in its color and gold, lapis lazuli, rock crystal, enamel. In the centre of the work is presented, enthroned, the figure of Mary, with a mantel (fireplace) on her shoulders and hair and holding on her knees the child, who appears addressing one of the angels. The virgin is also sheltered by an ogee arch supported on turned columns, and raised visually by steps. This composition achieves a very striking contrast: the dark bronze figure, in contrast to the lapis lazuli background and the part of the arch and the outside of it, in gilded bronze. Under the steps there is a heraldic enamel shield with a key on an azure background. The angels, kneeling, are flanking this figure, and, appearing in dark bronze, visually share the "category" of religious figures with Mary, while their (lower) position gives more status to both the Mother and Jesus. The rest of the composition is completed with a delicate landscape: constructions and walls on mountains, clouds in the sky, plants, stones, etc. To the outside, another lapis lazuli frame is placed decorated in the corners with appliques, giving way to carved and polychrome wood. The lapis lazuli is a semiprecious stone already known in the seventh millennium BC., found in deposits from the Caucasus to Mauritania. From the end of the middle ages, it increased its export to Europe, its use being more frequent since then both to use it as a pigment in paintings after grinding it (giving rise to the finest and most expensive of the blues, and of the colors in many occasions), as for backgrounds of paintings, incrustations in works of art, jewelry and, a little later, in the well-known "hard stone works". The figure of Mary still shows an influence of Gothic models, although more European than Italian, along with elements that could already show a closeness to the Renaissance: although the nakedness of Jesus is already shown in Gothic works (Madonna with Angels by Fra Angelico ), the creation of space by playing with the cloth in front of Christ can be appreciated in more advanced paintings (Virgin with Child by Domenico Ghirlandaio, National Gallery of London); the presence of a powerful throne can be seen frequently in Italian Madonnas of the Quattrocento (and before), but not quite as presented here. As for the landscape, it is necessary to compare it, for example, with that of the fresco of the Condotiero Guidoriccio de Fogliano (Simone Martini, finished in 1328). This is a work of great technical and aesthetic quality, not to mention the materials chosen for its creation, comparable only to outstanding examples from around the world, such as those preserved in the Palazzo Madama in Torino (Italy), where the coral It also has an important role. It is essential to mention, also, works such as the plate of hard stones (lapis lazuli between them) with a relief of Mary with the Child in...