A large carved stone statue of the Virgin and Child, sculpte - Lot 16

A large carved stone statue of the Virgin and Child, sculpted in the round, polychromed and gilded, with a roughly shaped back. Massive in proportion, Mary stands with a pronounced sway of the hips, holding her Son on her left arm; she offers him an apple toward which the Child reaches with his right hand, his other hand clutching a scroll; her face is oval with full features, large almond-shaped eyes, and a heavy chin; her hair is slightly wavy, pulled back and parted in the middle, partially covered by a thick veil falling down her back; she is dressed in a dress with a simple neckline and a cloak, one side of which wraps around her left arm, the other falling back to the front, draped around her powerful body; beautiful pleating at the waist, crossed by a large diagonal line running from the left hip to the feet and forming undulating folds under the arms. Tuscany, Arezzo?, circle of Nino Pisano (Pisa, 1315–1370), c. 1350/1370 H. 133 cm (head of the Child broken and reattached, slight erosion) Provenance: - Collection of Charles Fairfax Murray (1849–1919), Florence - Auction, Berlin, Cassirer & Helbing, Sammlung Murray/Florenz, November 6, 1929, lot 267 (fig.) The son of the great sculptor Andrea Pisano, Nino established himself as a leading artist in his own right around the mid-14th century. Active in Pisa between 1347 and 1368, he demonstrated a sensitivity to French influences, notably borrowing their lyrical treatment of drapery. This impressive Virgin belongs to a typology similar to the marble Madonna and Child preserved in the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella in Florence (c. 1348). It has retained much of its original polychromy and gilding.