ALINARI PHOTO.][BARGELLO, FLORENCE
29. THE MADONNA AND CHILD
Thirteenth century
In the Paris Exposition of 1900 two lovely ivory figures were placed together and formed a group of the Annunciation. They belong to different private collections,[24] and have been beautifully illustrated in the splendid series of photogravures of the treasures in the Exposition retrospective de l’Art français. Whether they are by the hand of the same craftsman seems a matter of doubt, as the technique of the drapery varies somewhat; but nothing can equal the exquisite softness of the Virgin’s robes and the dignified pose, worthy of the best work of the thirteenth century.
The ideal and pathetic group of The Descent from the Cross now in the Louvre ([Fig. 30]). It is strangely reminiscent in design, recalling the Byzantine rendering of the same subject in an eleventh century ivory, late in the Bonaffé Collection, in which the Virgin raises the hand of Christ to her lips with the same noble and restrained gesture, while His lifeless body slips helplessly down over the shoulder of Joseph of Arimathea. A similar group is sculptured in the Church of Le Bourget in Savoy, which is also useful in giving a clue to the fourth figure, which is evidently missing from the Louvre group.
Maskell, in the introductions to his Catalogue of Ivories in the Victoria and Albert Museum, refers to a small carving from the centre of a crozier which represents the Dead Christ on the knees of the Virgin, which is treated with strong but reserved feeling.
A. GIRAUDON PHOTO.][LOUVRE, PARIS
30. THE DESCENT FROM THE CROSS
End of thirteenth century
The series of religious tableaux cloans are very numerous, especially in the fourteenth century; they consist of two, three or more pieces and were intended for private devotions or as portable decorations for the various altars of a church, being taken with the cross and candles by the acolyte and placed on the altar for mass. The ornamentation was usually in tiers of little scenes, or with one large central figure ([Fig. 31]). The subjects have little variety and are taken from the Passion or the popular Légende dorée. The scenes usually follow in chronological order from the bottom of the left leaf to the corresponding corner on the right. The composition is often very confused, owing to the tendency to portray different stages of the same action in different compartments, to avoid placing figures on a second plane, and often the complicated architectural setting compelled the figures to be placed in contorted attitudes; in many representations of the Crucifixion the figure of Christ is strangely twisted to bring the head on a level with the other figures beneath the arcade.