TALLER DE TRÁPANI

(Finales del S. XV)

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

Alabaster with remains of gilding and polychrome. This typology of the Virgin standing with the Child on her left arm corresponds to one of the series of traditional images from the workshops of the Sicilian city of Trapani, which were dedicated to the production of devotional sculptures for private and public use since the 14th to 18th centuries, using alabaster from local quarries. Its origin is based on some stories and legLates, among which the one that stands out is that the sculptor Nino Pisano carved a figure of the Virgin and Child in Greek marble for a Cypriot priest and that, through different vicissitudes and miraculous events, it Lateed up in the Annunziata convent of Trapani. The wonders wrought by the image captivated the fervor of locals and people from other countries, thanks to maritime communications and the dissemination of the Order of Carmel, spreading 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 based on the constants and variants they present in relation to the original preserved in the Annunziata convent. This important work presented here follows the typology and "Nineesque" characteristics of the 14th century, without the modern contaminations of other later examples. It shows 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 mantle that, combined with the gestural grace of the Mother and Child, define a still Gothic figure. but in line with the specimen kept in the National Museum of Art of Catalonia, whose chronology from around 1500 allows us to establish a chronology slightly earlier than this piece. Attached is a report from Dr. Antoni Jose i Pitarch, Professor of Art History at the University of Barcelona. Measurements: 47 cm. in height.