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‘Espona’ Virgin

Romanesque

Anonymus

Thirteenth century

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The sculpture represents the type of the enthroned Virgin with the Christ Child sitting on her left knee. Unlike many other Catalan Romanesque Virgins, this one has preserved an ancient polychromy, consisting of a red tunic, a blue mantle, a white veil and a crown that was once gilded with imitation beads, under which there is a previous polychome layer with faces of a livelier pink, a green tunic, a red mantle and a white veil with red edges. There is nothing that contradicts the idea that both pictorial
layers are medieval, or even Romanesque. The Virgin’s mantle in the form of a chasuble is an iconographic singularity that indicates the identification of Mary with the Church or with the celebrant, who is dressed in a chasuble to celebrate the Mass. This trait has been linked to the Gregorian Reform and also to the development of the Mary worship during the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries, a period that saw the proliferation of images of this kind across Europe. This Virgin entered the Museu Episcopal de Vic in 1958 as part of the legacy of Jaume Espona. Although we still do not know the origin of this image, its similarities with certain images from the diocese of Urgell, and in particular from La Cerdanya, such as the Virgin of Ix leads us to suppose that it was made in a workshop from La Cerdanya.
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Detalls de l’obra

PLACE OF EXECUTION

Catalonia (Cerdagne?)

PERIOD

Thirteenth century

Material

White poplar, cut and polychromed

Dimensions

72 x 26 x 15 cm

Origin

Provenance unknown

WORK NUMBER

MEV 9692