Plaque

Plaque

Art history

2009CA7152_jpg_l. The Virgin is shown seated on a rainbow like arc within a mandorla. In her right hand she holds a sceptre in the form of a branch, in her left a book, and she supports the Christ Child on her lap. The zigzagging line of the Virgin's robe is typical of artworks produced in England, and particularly at Winchester. The Virgin and Child relief is clearly extremely closely related in style, shape and size to V&A Inv. no A.32-1928. Both pieces were in all likelihood produced in the same workshop. This plaque appears to have been made for a grander, possibly jewelled setting, and was embellished with gold rather than paint. It is certainly accidental that the two plaques have been damaged in identical fashion on the left side, indicative of being roughly torn off from their original setting, and both appeared on the art market within a decade of one another in around 1920, probably from a French source. They perhaps came from two related manuscripts kept in the same continental monastic library.

The Victoria and Albert Museum

1000-1020