TALLER DE TRÁPANI

(Finales del S. XV)

TRAPANI WORKSHOP (Late 15th century) "Virgin and Child"

Alabaster with traces of gilding and polychromy. This type of standing Madonna with Child on her left arm is one of the series of traditional images produced in the workshops of the Sicilian city of Trapani, which were dedicated to the production of devotional sculptures for private and public use from the 14th to the 18th century, using alabaster from local quarries. Its origins are based on a number of stories and legends, including one of them, retelling how the sculptor Nino Pisano carved a figure of the Madonna and Child in Greek marble for a Cypriot priest and that, due to various events and miraculous events, it ended up at the convent of the Annunziata in Trapani. The wonders that the image worked captivated the fervour of locals and people from other countries, thanks to maritime communications and the spread of the Carmelite Order, extending its cult throughout Europe, especially on the coasts of the Mediterranean. The fidelity to the original of the different workshops and over more than four hundred and fifty years, as well as the tastes of the different periods have shaped different groups or families of this type of images from the constants and the variants that they present in relation to the original preserved in the convent of the Annunziata. This important work presented here follows the typology and the "ninesque" characteristics of the 14th century, without the modern contaminations of other later examples. It displays great sobriety and elegance in its execution, both in the sinuous cadence of the Virgin and in the refined and sweet treatment of the folds of the cloak which, combined with the gestural grace of the Mother and Child, define a figure that is still Gothic, but in line with the example preserved in the National Art Museum of Catalonia, whose chronology of around 1500, allows us to establish a slightly earlier chronology than this piece. A report by Dr. Antoni José i Pitarch, Professor of Art History at the University of Barcelona, ​​is attached. Measurements: 47 cm. high.