Spain, probably Catalonia, circa 1300

Private collection, Brussels;

Thence in the same family, private collection from the South of France.

J. Liéveaux-Boccador, E. Bresset, Statuaire médiévale de collection, vol. II, Paris, 1972, pp. 272-73, no. 257 (ill.).

These two calm and moving figures of the Virgin Mary and Saint John mourning the death of Christ, come from a larger group of a Calvary. They are part of an iconographic revival linked to the Passion of Christ, the first examples of which date from the second half of the 12th century, and whose production would experience growing fervour for over a century. The slender bodies of the two present figures recall the extremely elongated silhouettes of the Chartres Column Statues, adapted to the Iberian vernacular style. The still hieratic folds are softer and the expression on the Virgin's face is more human than in earlier examples, emphasising the universal suffering of a mother grieving their child. Certain elements of clothing reference everyday life, such as the wimple covering the Virgin's neck, which was an attribute of widowhood from the 13th century onwards.

Saint John's deeply affected gesture, his face resting on his right hand, finds its origins in Byzantine models, taken up by Carolingian ivory carvers. The 13th century carved and polychrome wooden Virgin of Calvary in the church of Verneuil-sur-Avre (Eure), holding her face buried in the palm of her left hand, is the first known representation of this type in France (see J. Liéveaux-Boccador, E. Bresset, op. cit., p. 270, no. 254). The same gesture of despondency can be seen in a 13th century figure of Saint John of Calvary, formerly in the Altounian-Rousset collection (Mâcon), attributed to a sculptor from south-western France, in an area of fruitful exchanges with Catalan models (see op. cit., p. 273, no. 258; whereabout unknown). In another group of two similar figures, of a rougher and typically late 13th century Catalan style, Mary holds her hands crossed over her stomach in a gesture comparable to the one we are presenting; Saint John's attitude is identical to the present one (cf. ibidem, p. 274, No. 259-60; current location unknown).