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Virgin and Child
German
1771
Object Place: Europe, Schrezheim, Germany
Medium/Technique
Tin-glazed earthenware with brass halo and iron staff
Dimensions
H. 112.3 cm (44 3/16 in.); Base: 12 inches; Widest point of base brackets: 16 1/2 inches
Credit Line
William Francis Warden Fund
Accession Number61.1185
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsCeramics – Pottery – Earthenware
Founded in 1752, the Schrezheim factory, near Ellwagen in southern Germany, is famous for ceramic sculpture on an ambitious scale. The depiction of the Virgin holding the Christ Child while standing on a celestial globe and treading on a serpent derives from the Bible's book of Revelations and symbolizes the triumph of the Church over heresy. Statues of the Virgin were often placed outside houses to ensure divine protection from evil, and this example stood over the main door of the meeting house of the Teutonic Knights (crusaders bringing Christianity to eastern Europe) in the small town of Wolframs-Eschenbach, near Nürnberg.
DescriptionFigure of the Virgin, wearing flowing robes and metal halo, holding the Christ Child on her left arm and with a metal rod with cross in outstretched right hand, standing on dragon and crescent moon on globe.
Provenance1771, commissioned by the Order of Teutonic Knights for the niche over the entrance of the Fürstenhof (Hauptstrasse 17), Wolframs-Eschenbach, Germany; 1813, with the dissolution of the Order, the community of Eschenbach transferred the property to private ownership, and it was acquired by Ritzer; around 1900, property exchanged by Ritzer with Josef Dumm; 1928, Dumm removed the Virgin and Child and sold it to Igo Levi (b. 1887 - d. 1961), Nürnberg [see note 1]; taken to the Kunstgewerbemuseum, Cologne [see note 2]; after World War II, restituted to Igo Levi, Lucerne; 1961, sold by Igo Levi to the MFA for $20,000. (Accession Date: November 8, 1961)
NOTES:
[1] The early provenance (to 1928) was provided by Mr. Dörr, then the owner of the property, in a letter to Hanns Swarzenski (September 23, 1963).
[2] According to Dörr (as above, n. 1), the Madonna had been in a Cologne art collection upon Mr. Levi's instruction. In September, 1938, Levi negotiated the sale of this figure to the Cologne museums, although they had not raised the funds necessary to purchase it. Because he was Jewish, the rest of Igo Levi's art collection was confiscated by the German Labor Front in November, 1938; he was sent to the Dachau concentration camp before being released and fleeing to Switzerland. The Germanisches Nationalmuseum tried to obtain the Madonna but was ultimately unsuccessful, and the figure remained in Cologne. After the end of the War, it was returned to Levi. See Anja Ebert, "Die Sammlung Igo Levi: 'Versteigert' im Germanischen Nationalmuseum?' in Gekauft - Getauscht - Geraubt? Erwerbungen zwischen 1933 und 1945 (exh. cat., Germanisches Nationalmuseum, 2017-2018), pp. 193-195.
NOTES:
[1] The early provenance (to 1928) was provided by Mr. Dörr, then the owner of the property, in a letter to Hanns Swarzenski (September 23, 1963).
[2] According to Dörr (as above, n. 1), the Madonna had been in a Cologne art collection upon Mr. Levi's instruction. In September, 1938, Levi negotiated the sale of this figure to the Cologne museums, although they had not raised the funds necessary to purchase it. Because he was Jewish, the rest of Igo Levi's art collection was confiscated by the German Labor Front in November, 1938; he was sent to the Dachau concentration camp before being released and fleeing to Switzerland. The Germanisches Nationalmuseum tried to obtain the Madonna but was ultimately unsuccessful, and the figure remained in Cologne. After the end of the War, it was returned to Levi. See Anja Ebert, "Die Sammlung Igo Levi: 'Versteigert' im Germanischen Nationalmuseum?' in Gekauft - Getauscht - Geraubt? Erwerbungen zwischen 1933 und 1945 (exh. cat., Germanisches Nationalmuseum, 2017-2018), pp. 193-195.