France, in the 15th century style - Lot 77

France, in the 15th century style Opening Virgin Oak statue of the Virgin Mary with Child, whose two leaves open onto a group of the Trinity mounted in the center. Approx. 40 cm high Related work : -Vierge à l'Enfant dite Notre-Dame du Mur, circa 1390, Morlaix, Eglise Saint-Mathieu. This work, featuring a Virgin nursing the Child Jesus, belongs to the category of devotional objects known as "opening virgins". Like a triptych, it opens onto an image of a Trinitarian pietà, usually accompanied by scenes from the life of Christ painted on the inner panels. This type of production originated in the Rhine Valley as early as the 13th century. Very popular in the late Middle Ages to support the Marian cult, this type of sculpted pious image fell victim to the destructive ire of the great iconoclastic reformers of the 16th century, who saw it as a medium for dangerous superstitious behavior. Jean Gerson was already wary of them at the beginning of the 15th century: "Care must be taken," he wrote, "that no false tales are painted. I say this partly because of an image found among the Carmelites, and others like them, who have a Trinity in their wombs, as if the whole Trinity had taken on human flesh in the Virgin Mary. I judge these images to be devoid of beauty and devotion; they may even provoke error and impiety." Witness to the renewed enthusiasm for this type of devotional object at the beginning of the 20th century, our work is derived from the famous Vierge ouvrante, known as Notre-Dame du Mur, still preserved in the Eglise Saint-Mathieu in Morlaix and dated 1390, which seems to have been the main prototype.