Figures from a Retable of the Virgin and Child, with Saint Catherine of Alexandria, Saint Apollonia, Saint Margaret of Antioch, and (possibly) Saint Mary Kleophas

c. 1440/1460

This freestanding sculpture consists of a central panel with two narrower panels on hinges that could close like shutters. The central panel shows a crowned woman holding a baby, Mary and Jesus, and each side panel holds two people, one stacked over the other and about half the scale of Mary. All five people are shown under canopies carved with triangular moldings carved with filigree-like tracery. The panels appear to be wood, and the people are carved from white alabaster. The faces are all oval with large eyes, straight noses, and small mouths. They all wear robes, dresses, or habits that fall in thick folds to the small bases on which they stand. Mary has long, wavy hair, and she holds a sprig of roses in her left hand, to our right. Resembling a miniature man, Jesus sits upright in her other hand, his hands clasped in his lap and his knees together. He appears to wear a collared vestment, and his hair is either damaged or is curly only on each side of his narrow face. To the left, the top woman wears a crown over long wavy hair. She props the end of a chest-high sword with one hand and holds a small wheel with the other. Below her, a woman wears a cloth covering over her head and a rosary hangs from her waist. She holds a what might be small vessel and a green object, perhaps a book. In the top right, the woman also has wavy hair under a crown, and she holds a book and a tall cross. The fifth woman, in the lower right, holds two objects that are difficult to make out, perhaps an incense burner or jar and a short staff. Traces of red, green, black, and other colored paint are especially prominent on the objects the women hold and the backgrounds.

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On View

West Building Ground Floor, Gallery G18


Artwork overview

  • Medium

    alabaster with traces of polychromy, in a modern tabernacle with four replaced canopies

  • Credit Line

    Florian Carr Fund

  • Dimensions

    overall: 100 × 50 cm (39 3/8 × 19 11/16 in.)
    part of object (Virgin and Child): 62 × 19 × 6 cm (24 7/16 × 7 1/2 × 2 3/8 in.)
    part of object (female Saints): 25 × 7 × 3 cm (9 13/16 × 2 3/4 × 1 3/16 in.)

  • Accession

    2014.60.1


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Commissioned by Diego Garcia de Moldes, for the chapel of Nuestra Señora del Campo at the family house, Castropol, Asturias, Spain;[1] consecrated 1461; by descent to, and mentioned in the 1641 will of, Pedro Garcia de Moldes y Castrillón; by descent in the family; (sale, Sotheby's, London, 5 December 2012, no. 13); (Sam Fogg Ltd., London); purchased 28 May 2014 by NGA.
[1] Diego Garcia de Moldes was a seafarer, and a senior member of Castropol's leading family. The name of the chapel translates to Our Lady of the Field.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1993

  • Origenes: Arte y cultura en Asturias. Siglos VII-XV, Catedral Metropolitana Basilica de San Salvador, Oviedo, Spain, 1993, no. 283, repro. of the Virgin and Child.

Bibliography

1999

  • Caso Fernández, Francisco de, and Pedro Paniagua Félix. El arte gótico en Asturias. Gijón, 1999: 198 (repro. of Virgin and Child), 199.

  • Franco Mata, Angela. El retablo Gótico de Cartagena y los alabastros ingleses en España. Cajamurcia, 1999: 57 fig. 14, 65, 72 n. 34, 106-107 figs. 114-117.

2013

  • Beer, Lloyd de and Naomi Speakman. "A Question of Style." Apollo 177 (May 2013): 66-71, repro.

2015

  • Luchs, Alison. “English, 15th Century, Figures from a Retable of the Virgin and Child.” National Gallery of Art Bulletin no. 52 (Spring 2015): 32-33, repro.

2016

  • Marcos Vallaure, Emilio. “Una joya perdida del patrimonio cultural asturiano: el retablito inglés de alabastro del siglo XV de la capilla de Nuestra Señora del Campo de Castropol.” _ Anuario de la Sociedad protectora de la Balesquida_ 1 (2016): 105-121, repro.

Wikidata ID

Q63863534


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