18th century
Maternity
Ivory, Belgian black marble, and Siena yellow marble, 35.5 x 23 cm
The present plaque isolates a suggestive image of maternity, totemic in its stature and imaginative in the appealing vagueness of the choice of materials. Indeed, there is a hidden shared participation between the symbolism of the figure and the valuable plastic-sculptural qualities that define its details. The marbles used here, along with the ivory that structures the main part of the sculpture, demonstrate the particular fervor with which the cabinets and studios of erudite collectors began to crowd in a grueling race to obtain the most prestigious piece as early as the beginning of the previous century. In this case, the ivory allows for an anatomical rendition of overwhelming strength, where the skill in carving is fundamental in defining the high relief of mother and child with brilliant plasticity.
The Belgian black marble, a rare material of unparalleled shaded darkness, is extracted only from quarries located along the French border; divided into subcategories, the grand antique type from the North is recognizable here. The Siena yellow marble, on the other hand, thanks to the constant golden-reddish vein that covers its ochre background, qualifies as a very prestigious piece within Italian soil. The wise use of this marble pair coloristically contains the central ivory, formally enhancing it in a crescendo of contrast and luminosity.
The iconography of maternity anthropologically contains a panistic reflection on the Whole: if, with the Christian age, in Western art, this has preferentially coincided with the Virgin-Child couple, the present one traces the classical-pagan gravity pre-existing the Christian solution, bringing to completion the gestation of the prehistoric Venuses. Here, the ancestral bond between mother and son, the generative principle of the very order of the world, is honored in a timeless tolling of the renewal of life.
The object is in good condition.
