BEDTIME STORIES

At the turn of the 14th century, Paris established itself as one of the most influential artistic centres of Europe. As the seat of political capital and royal power, it became the religious and intellectual epicentre of Northern Europe thanks to the presence of the Capetian court and the University of Paris. This in turn supported the important artistic production of religious art in particular, which expanded well beyond the borders of the Kingdom of France to the rest of Europe. Paris during this period attracted the best craftsmen and artists, supported by prestigious patrons, such as royalty, the clergy and the bourgeois elite. Among the most emblematic creations of this period were small ivory and carved wooden figures of religious figures, responding to the development of private devotion. These works, both delicate and precious, bore witness to the exceptional skill of the Parisian workshops and their ability to combine technical skill with refinement. This very beautiful Christ is a perfect demonstration of this. Formerly suspended from a cross, the figure of the deceased Christ is represented with his head lowered and rested on his chest. His face is marked by contained pain. His eyes are half-closed, his features noble and peaceful. Only the wrinkles on his forehead betray his suffering, communicating two essential aspects of the person of Christ: both human suffering and his future divine redemption. His slender body reveals the artist's great anatomical mastery, in particular his ribcage constrained by his position on the cross, his muscles tense with pain, and his swollen abdomen emphasised by a long perizonium tied around his hips that extends to below his knees. The soft and delicate folds of the fine drapery give a lightness and preciousness to the present work. It is enhanced by the subtle polish of the surface evoking the gold, silver and ivory creations of Parisian workshops at the end of the 13th century. It is the luxurious ivory production from this period that the present work finds some of its closest equivalents. In DANIEL KATZ LIMITED particular, a similar braided crown of thorns resting on the hair with wide strands can be found in two very beautiful Parisian ivory Christs from the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Bode Museum in Berlin, dated between 1275 and 1300, as well as a walrus ivory Christ kept at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. The finely chiselled volutes of hair, beard and moustache of our subject, as well as his fine features, find their most convincing similarity in the New York Christ, while the sensitive modelling of his slender body and the design of his long fluid perizonium are closer to the work of Berlin. Some creations by Parisian master goldsmiths from this period also present several striking similarities with this work. This is particularly the case of the Christ in the treasury of Västerâs Cathedral or the Christ from the shrine of Saint Gertrude of Nivelle, a work in the purest Parisian style made by a well-established goldsmith in the diocese of Arras, very influenced by the work of the artists of the capital who were then in great demand at the court of the Counts of Artois. This strong proximity maintained by the present figure with these emblematic models of Parisian art from the opening of the 14th century confirms its place in. the prestigious body of French Gothic art. Encountering only very few equivalents in terms of format, materials and quality, this work can therefore be compared to the old Christ in the Lambert collection or the earlier small Virgin of the Annunciation in oak from the Cluny Museum, and is a rare and precious testimony to private devotional sculpture in wood during the reign of Philip the Fair.