Gothic Virgin in Majesty. Aragon - circa 1300.

Museum-quality and important Virgin and Child in carved and polychromed wood, preserving significant remains of medieval polychromy. This sculpture belongs to a large family of seated Virgins and Child, known as the “Basque-Navarrese-Riojan” type and disseminated in Aragon around 1300. Mary is represented seated frontally on a richly decorated throne, in a solemn and hieratic attitude. The Virgin wears a tall fleur-de-lis crown, whose silhouette contributes to the monumentality of the figure. A red veil frames her face and falls over her shoulders. The blue tunic, decorated with gilt motifs, appears beneath a broad mantle whose folds fall over the knees. The Child is seated on the Virgin’s left knee, slightly offset from the central axis. He blesses with his right hand and holds a book in the other, probably the Scriptures. This iconographic scheme, widespread among Gothic Virgins of northern Spain, partially breaks with strict Romanesque symmetry.

The most significant parallel is the former Virgin of the Cathedral of Nuestra Señora de la Huerta in Tarazona. This work, studied by Samuel García Lasheras, presents a very close scheme in both composition and polychromy. This comparison allows our sculpture to be placed in western Aragon, probably in the region of Tarazona, a contact zone between Aragon, Navarre and La Rioja, around 1300. Among related works, one may also cite the Virgin and Child preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inv. 53.67.
Full dossier and study available upon request.
Bibliography consulted:
· La antigua titular de la catedral de Nuestra Señora de La Huerta de Tarazona (Zaragoza) y la difusión de los modelos en la imaginería gótica mariana en Aragón, Samuel García Lasheras in Turiaso, ISSN 0211-7207, No. 24, 2018-2019.
· Medieval Marian Imagery in Navarre, Fernández-Ladreda, Pamplona, 1989.
· Museu Frederic Marès. Catàleg d’escultura i pintura medievals, edited by Francesca Español and Joaquín Yarza Luaces, 1991.