A Masterly Hand / Scientia Artis 9

garments of large statues of female figures. In the first scheme, the voluminous mantle is fully gilded and has a blue lining, while the dress is embellished with red, very often being covered with gilded continuous applied brocade ­ highlighted with red, or sometimes with red glaze and gilded local applied brocades, or red glaze with gilded patterns. This scheme of composition was developed in the second half of the fifteenth century, as illustrated by the Mosan Virgin and Child of around 1479 in the basilica of Tongeren and the mid-fifteenth-century (?) stone Virgin and Child – probably from Brussels – in the Royal Museums of Art and History (inv. 25 42). 15 Th e statue of Our Lady of St Severin in St Martin’s Church in Liège and a Virgin and Child on the Crescent Moon in the Grand Curtius Museum in Liège ( inv. GC.REL.02b.1980.30654) are other examples from around 15 00. 16 In sculptures that evidence the second scheme of composition, the female figure wears a cloak that is painted entirely in red (usually a red glaze on top of a red underlayer) and ornamented with local applied brocades. In this case the cloak falls straight at the sides, leaving the front of the gilded gown largely visible. The Virgin and Child attributed to the Master of the Virgin of­ Piétrebais from M – Museum Leuven (inv. C/362) is an exam ple. 17 D ated around 1500-1510, the Virgin is attired in a red mantle ornamented with large lozenge-shaped local applied brocades and lined with blue. Her gilded overgown has a blue sgraffito letter-border punctuated with foliated scrolls. In both schemes, gilding has a strong visual impact. In the first scheme the gilded mantle is drawn across the front of the figure, in the second the red cloak is thrown open to reveal the gilded go wn. 18 It is also interesting to note that in both compositional schemes red is used either to cover the plain exte- rior of the mantle or to highlight the gown. Blue is limited to linings and is either left plain or ornamented with local applied brocades. In both schemes, sgraffito letter-borders on the gilded garments seem to appear around 1500. When compared to the large early-sixteenth-century sculptures surveyed above, the polychromy of the Liège Virgin might appear to be quite singular. With its gilded cloak the statue seems to belong to the first compositional type, yet the gown is covered with blue with gold sgraffito decoration rather than red glaze or continuous applied brocade highlighted with red. The predominance of blue, which is used for the gown, the lining of the cloak and the flowers in the borders, was not found in other large statues of the Virgin and Child. On the other hand, blue is the predominant colour in representations of the Immaculate Virgin, where the gilded surface becomes secondary. The Virgin from the Collegiate Church of St Gertrude in Nivelles for example, wears a gown that is entirely covered with blue and adorned with a gilded floral pattern on the e dge. 19 Two Mosan sculptures dated around 1530 are representative of the evolution of the two schemes of composition abovementioned. They can be compared with the Liège Virgin for details of the ornamentation and the use of brown glaze. In the St Helena from St Leonard’s Church in Zoutleeuw, attributed to the workshop of Jan van Steffesw ert, 20 th e gilded cloak is lined with blue and the overgown is covered with gilded continuous applied brocade (in this case without coloured highlighting). The edge of the cloak has a border of gilded 14.10 a Fig. 14.10 Jan van Steffeswert, St Odile (?), walnut, 94.3 x 32.5 x 33.1 cm, 1509, Brussels, Royal ­ Museums of Art and History, inv. 8680 a St Odile (?) b Brown glaze on silver on the lining of the gilded gown c Punched rosette with six-branched star in its centre in the mantle’s gilded border Fig. 14.11 Mayer van den Bergh Breviary, Ghent/Bruges, c. 1500, Antwerp, Mayer van den Bergh Museum, inv. 618, fol. 96v