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Our Lady
Portuguese Goldsmithery
First half of 16th century
Gilded silver, in relief and chiselled
30 cm (H) x 13 cm (W)
From the Funchal Cathedral
MASF61
Full-body sculpture of Our Lady, in gilded silver with polychrome flesh.
The polyfoil base, with twelve segments in rosette, is the finishing touch of a stylised rose in relief, which is seen on the reverse in silver. The figure stands on the base, with her hands together, close to the body, in an attitude of prayer.
Anatomical forms can be seen beneath the draped cloth. The Virgin is dressed in a trailing tunic, tied at the waist with a belt, allowing a shoe to be seen. An ample mantel wraps the back part of the image from the head and is held at the front by the left arm, in folds of elaborate work. The mantle has a border cut into the hem, in tangent circles, delimited by a double fillet.
The crown is circular, closed with a framed ring and the body hollowed and cut out. The ring is smooth and the body consists of loops in fleur-de-lis style. The stems are pearled. The set is finished off with a Latin cross with trefoil ends.
It belonged to the Confraternity of Our Lady of the Rosary, in whose inventories there is already in 1633 a Lady in gilded silver with her corals and crown.1 She would have had a coral rosary hanging from her joined hands.
This image passed to the Prebend of the Cathedral with the name Our Lady of the Conception. The inventory of 1798 mentions a gilded silver image of Our Lady of the Conception that serves in the stations.2
This 16th-century piece is probably from a workshop in Lisbon.
Exhibited at the Convent of Santa Clara in 1951.
1 A Sé do Funchal, Padre Manuel Juvenal Pita Ferreira, JGDAF, Funchal, 1963, p. 194.
2 Idem |
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