Lot 273: A TERRACOTTA FIGURE OF THE MADONNA OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

A TERRACOTTA FIGURE OF THE MADONNA OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
ATTRIBUTED TO IGNAZ GUNTHER (1725-1775), CIRCA 1760-70
Repairs and losses
23¼ in. (59 cm.) high

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
A. Schoenberger, Ignaz Gunther, Munich, 1954.

The present terracotta figure depicts the Virgin Mary as the Virgin Immaculate, a reference to the argument most strongly put forward in the 12th and 13th centuries that, as the pre-ordained mother of Christ, her own conception must have been free from sin. She stands on a serpent, symbolising her role as the second Eve, who would overcome Satan and restore the relationship mankind had lost in the Garden of Eden.

With its elongated proportions, elegant contrapposto stance, and distinctive angular treatment of the drapery, this figure can be immediately linked to the German sculptor, Ignaz Gunther, who worked principally in Munich and was heavily patronised by the Catholic church. The facial type is also entirely characteristic of his work; with its heavy-lidded eyes, strong nose and oval shape, it can be compared directly to works such as his plaster relief of the Virgin in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich (Schoenberger, op. cit., no. 104) or his carved wood Virgin of the Apocalypse, originally from the parish church of Munich-Ramersdorf (ibid, no. 17). The highly characterised serpent, with it hooked nose, also finds close parallels in other works by Gunther, including his wood group of St Margaret and the Dragon from the St. Eligius altar of the parish church of St. Peter in Munich (ibid, no. 117).

With its unfinished reverse, the figure was obviously intended to be placed in a niche, and may have been created for private devotion. Alternatively, it may represent an initial study for a larger group in wood, which was never executed, or which has since been lost or destroyed.

This terracotta is being offered with a thermoluminescence test from Oxford Authentication, which states that the piece was fired between 200 and 400 years ago.