(bright piano music)
- [Male narrator] We're in the Louvre in Paris,
looking at an extraordinary sculptor from the first half
of the 14th Century.
- [Female Narrator] This is an incredibly luxurious object,
it's made out of silver, covered in gold.
Clearly this was made for someone very important
and very wealthy.
- [Male narrator] In addition to the gold and silver,
there's enamel, there are pearls and there's crystal.
- [Female narrator] And she originally
wore a crown on her head.
- [Male narrator] This was likely commissioned by
the king of France Charles IV for his wife Jeanne d'Evreux.
- [Female narrator] And so this known
as the Virgin of Jeanne d'Evreux
but this beautiful golden figure is more than a sculptor.
- [Male narrator] It's a reliquary,
it was intended to hold sacred relics associated
with the Virgin Mary.
It was given to the abbey of St. Denis,
just north of Paris, this was an especially
important religious center, it was where
the king and queens of France were buried.
- [Female narrator] What make this so typical
of the Gothic period,
is the extraordinary tenderness we see,
between the mother and child.
Earlier in the Gothic period we saw Mary,
represented very frontally holding the Christ child,
also positioned frontally on her lap
but here Christ is propped up on her hip in a way
that seems very natural.
- [Male Narrator] And tenderly touching her mouth
with his hand.
The frontal image that you referred to comes out
of the Byzantine tradition
but as the Virgin Mary gains increasing prominence
in the medieval era especially in western Europe
as the cult of the virgin grows there is the introduction
of new ways of representing her.
- [Femal Narrator] Look at the virgins long neck
and the way that tilts gracefully toward the Christ child.
In his left hand, he holds a pomegranate.
- [Male Narrator] A symbol of resurrection,
recalling not the beginning of his life but the end.
- [Female Narrator] Which is not unusual in the images
of the virgin and child,
we frequently see a foreshadowing
of Christs suffering and death on the cross.
- [Male Narrator] But if it wasn't for the pomegranate,
we would have no inkling of that terrible end
because there seems to be nothing
but tenderness that's represented here.
- [ Female Narrator] We see this increasing interest
in human emotion, in human interaction,
here in this small statuesque
but we also see it on the gothic cathedrals
that were built in and around Paris.
- [Male Narrator] And in fact in Notre dam de Paris,
the major cathedral in the city itself,
there is a large sculpture that looks quite similar to this.
It has the same emphasis on an elegant drapery,
on an elegant sway to the body especially the jutting hip
and we see it in the manuscript
that had also been owned by this queen
that is now in the collection
of the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
in one particular elimination that shows the annunciation.
- [Female Narrator] To me the sway
of the body gives the figure a sense of movement
and animation that's incredibly life like
but we shouldn't confuse this with the later contrapposto
that develops in the renaissance
or that we see in ancient Greek in Roman sculpture,
where we clearly see a bent knee pressing
through the drapery
and a figure that's in correct proportion.
This figure is very elongated and that sway is not
so much created by a body that's realistic
but instead on this very complicated curving of the drapery.
- [Male Narrator] The metal workers who produced this
where taking great care with that drapery,
I'm particularly fond of the way
that her sleeve wraps over her arm.
- [Female Narrator] And I like the way it pulls down
at her feet.
If we go to the virgins left side,
there's this wonderful passage of drapery
where it forms a zig-zag pattern down her legs.
- [Male Narrator] The figure stands on a base
that is itself a work of art.
- [Female Narrator] The base is carried by four lions
and then we see figures in niches
and these frame enamel scenes showing moments
from the life of Christ.
So for example, we see the annunciation,
where the angel Gabriel tells Mary
that she will conceive Christ
and then as we moved around the reliquary,
we get the scenes of the crucifixion
and the resurrection of Christ.
- [Male Narrator] Enamel is the addition
of usually ground colored glass
that's heated on a metal surface and adheres to that surface
and creates these lovely deep colors in this case.
- [Female Narrotor] And it makes sense to me
that the prophets are on the base
that the Virgin Mary stands on,
the prophets are figures from the old testament
who, according to Christian tradition,
foretell the coming of Christ
and above we see Mary holding the Christ child.
- [Male Narrator] The sumptuousness of this sculpture,
creates a clear relationship between the political power
of the king and queen of France and the spiritual power
that the Virgin Mary and Christ represent.
(bright piano music)