Maternity

XVIII century

Maternity

Ivory, black marble of Belgium and yellow marble of Siena, cm 35,5 x 23

The present plaque isolates a suggestive image of motherhood, totemic in its presence, imaginifica in the attractive vaghezza of the choice of materials. There is in fact a subtext sharing between the symbolism of the figure and the precious plastic-sculptural defining its details. The marbles used here, together with the ivory that structures the main part of the sculpture, They denounce the particular fervour with which already at the beginning of the previous century cabinets and studies of erudite collectors had begun to crowd in an exhausting race to obtain the most prestigious piece. In this case, ivory allows an anatomical restitution of overpowering strength, where the carving skill is fundamental to define with brilliant plasticism the high relief of mother and child.

The black marble of Belgium, rare material and of the incomparable gradation of shady darkness, is extracted only from quarries located along the French frontier; subdivided into subcategories, in the present one is recognizable the great ancient type of the North. The yellow marble of Siena, on the other hand, thanks to the constant golden-reddish grain that covers its ochre bottom, qualifies as a very prestigious piece within the Italian soil. The wise use of this pair of marble coloristically encloses the central ivory, exalting it formally in a crescendo of contrast and brightness.

The iconography of motherhood contains an anthropological panistic reflection on the All: if with the Christian age, in western art, this has preferably coincided with the Virgin-Child couple, the present follows the classical-gravitypreexisting paganeggiante to the Christian solution, bringing to completion the gestation of the prehistoric Venus.
Here the ancestral bond between mother and child, generative principle of the order itself of the world, is celebrated in a timeless ringing of the renewal of life.

The object is in good condition