Lot 135 : GEORGE MINNE BELGIAN, 1866-1941 LES SAINTES FEMMES AU TOMBEAU (THREE HOLY WOMEN AT THE TOMB)
Auction Location: United Kingdom - 2005
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Description:
varnished wood with an old Vienna customs sticker beneath
CATALOGUE NOTE
Minne conceived his sculpture of The Three Holy Women at the Tomb in 1896 and executed versions in granite and bronze as well as wood. The plaster model used for the bronze cast was exhibited by the Shepherd Gallery in 1989. The plaster had belonged to Minne's friend Leon de Smet (1881-1966).
Minne's group finds its inspiration in French funerary sculpture of the 15th century. In particular, he seems to have been looking at the monumental sculpture to Philippe Pot, Grand Seneschal of Burgundy, from the chapel of John the Baptist in the abbey of Citeaux. This monument was moved to the Louvre in Paris in 1889 where Minne would have encountered it. The eight hooded mourning figures are shown walking in procession alongside bearing the tomb lid on which Pot lies. The Shepherd Gallery also suggested the hooded figures of Les Pleurants by Claus Sluter for the tomb of the Duc de Bourgogne executed between 1404 and 1406 and Canova's funerary statuettes as sources.
RELATED LITERATURE
T.Müller, Sculpture in the Netherlands, Germany, France and Spain 1400-1500 Harmondsworth 1966, p.136 and 143(b), frontcover;
Shepherd Gallery exhibition catalogue, New York 1989, no.46
Dimensions:
61.5 by 43.5cm., 24 1/4 by 17 1/8 in.
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