Crowned Head - Île-de-France, first half of 14th century

Head of a crowned Virgin
Île-de-France, first half of 14th century.
H20 cm

Beautiful face with a slightly triangular shape and delicate features, almond-shaped eyes with tapered ends and finely outlined upper eyelids, high arched eyebrows; long straight nose, mouth with thin lips forming a slight smile; small round chin. Crowned with a fleur-de-lis adorned crown set with lozenge and rectangular cabochons placed on a short veil partially covering the golden and wavy hair, this Virgin impresses with her frontal stance and sophisticated stylization.
The quality of execution, finely drawn features, denote in the sculptor an uncommon sureness of hand, typical of Parisian workshops of the first half of the 14th century. This sculpture can be compared to a Virgin head made in Île-de-France during the first half of the 14th century, preserved at the Louvre and originating from the church of Saint Pierre aux Boeufs in Paris.
The work presents evident affinities with our sculpture: the slightly triangular-shaped head, adorned with a crown of cabochons ending in alternating fleurons; a short veil with flattened folds frames wavy hair; both are frontal, gazing serenely at the faithful. The almond-shaped eyes and delicate smile that marks the face with refined gentleness are stylistic features common to Virgins sculpted in Île-de-France around 1325-1350.
This head is remarkable for the preservation of its original polychromy, with its rich pink and golden hair, as well as for the quality of execution and the softness of the features.

Related littérature:
M. Aubert, Description raisonnée des sculptures du Moyen Âge, de la Renaissance et temps Modernes, T. I, Musée du Louvre, Paris, 1950
Les fastes du gothique. Le siècle de Charles V [Exposition. Paris. 1981-1982].
Barnay (Sylvie), Le ciel sur la terre. Les apparitions de la Vierge au Moyen Âge, Paris, 1999
F. Baron, Sculpture Française, I. Moyen Âge, cat. exp. Musée du Louvre, Paris, 1996
J. Boccador, E. Bresset, Statuaire médiévale de collection, T.II, Paris, 1972
Lefrançois-Pillion (Louise), « Les statues de la Vierge à l’Enfant dans la sculpture française au XIVe siècle », dans Gazette des beaux-arts, t. 77 (6e période, t. 14), 1935, vol. 2
J. A. Schmoll gen. Eisenwerth, Die Lothringische Skulptur des 14. Jahrhunderts, Petersberg, 2005
D. Gaborit-Chopin, L'Art au Temps des Rois Maudits, Paris, 1998