"Seat of Wisdom (Sedes Sapientiae)". Carved, polychromed and gilded wooden sculpture. Basque-Navarran-Riojan ...

"Seat of Wisdom (Sedes Sapientiae)". Carved, polychromed and gilded wooden sculpture. Basque-Navarran-Riojan workshop. Transition between the Romanesque and the Gothic. Circa 1300.
Very sweet depiction of Mary, the Madonna is presented as a young woman with very delicate and beautiful features, crowned and with a necklace that adorns her throat. She has lost her right hand, in which she may have held a fruit. The Child is slightly off-centre and holds the orb in His left hand.
Doctor Fernández-Ladreda identified the style with that known as: “vasco-navarro-riojano” and describes it in the following way: “…Mary appears in a frontal position, generally resting her left hand on the arm and shoulder of the Child, although in some occasions she holds him by the lower part. In the right hand, which she lifts towards the sky, she shows an attribute that can be a peculiarly shaped flower or an Apple. Jesus, seated on the Madonna’s left knee, breaks the forward-facing nature of the group as He is presented slightly turned towards the right. With the right hand He gives blessing and in the left hand there is a book, or more infrequently, a sphere. His feet, or at least one of them, rest in the maternal lap or on Mary’s right leg and, sometimes, His legs are crossed…”
According to what can be read in the National Archaeological Museum in Madrid: “With the widespread dissemination of images of the Virgin Mary from the 12th century, this type of depiction went through a series of changes in the second half of the 13th century which derive from monumental stone sculpture, especially since the innovations made by the Master of the Sarmental Portico at Burgos Cathedral.”
The carnation polychrome residue appears to be original, in our opinion, and the gilding is from the 16th century. It has woodworm holes.
55,5 x 24 x 14,5 cm.
Bibliography: FERNANDEZ-LADRERA, Clara. "Imaginería Medieval Mariana en Navarra". (Medieval images of the Virgin Mary) Pamplona, 1989).