Virgin and Child Enthroned

Christoph Angermair

ca. 1600 · Ivory · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

The elongated proportions of this statuette and the whorls of the Christ Child’s coiffure reveal a debt to the Mannerist style brought to Germany from Italy by the Munich court sculptors Hubert Gerhard and Hans Reichl. Although they both worked primarily in bronze, they influenced Angermair, a court sculptor to Duke Maximilian I of Bavaria, who specialized in small-scale ivory carvings for wealthy princes and merchants. Natural philosophy connected material to the divine, so ivory statuettes of religious figures were an appropriate addition to collectors’ Kunstkammern.

Artist

Christoph Angermair

Date

ca. 1600

Medium

Ivory

Culture

German

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Bequest of Mary Clark Thompson, 1923