Virgin and Child
- Object Name
- Virgin and Child
- Culture / Site
- France
- Medium
- Ivory with paint
- Date
- ca. 1275/1300
- Dimensions
- 36.8 x 16.5 x 12.7 cm
- Credit Line
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917, 17.190.295. Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, NY
- Section
- Driving Desires
- Description
Ivory tusks were among the luxury commodities traded across the Sahara Desert alongside gold. Two elephant subspecies are found in West Africa: the Savanna elephant, which is the largest of all elephant species, and the forest elephant. The tusks of both elephants were circulated through medieval trans-Saharan trade. Large-scale Virgin and Child statuettes represent the apex of ivory carving in the medieval period in France, and this sculpture is among the largest. Measuring 16.5 cm in diameter at its widest point, the solid statuette could only have been made from the tusk of a Savanna elephant. The artist has maximized the size of the figures of the Virgin and Child obtained from the large tusk and augmented it further by adding separate ivory pieces to make the throne. This statuette was finished with fine details in paint and gold.