|
The statue is on the trumeau of the portal of the Chartreuse de Champmol. The Portal of the Virgin was begun in 1385 by Jean de Marville, Sluter's predecessor in the employ of the Duke of Burgundy. Sluter transformed the portal composition by increasing the size of the statues and alternating standing and seated figures. The Virgin occupies the whole trumeau. She is no longer a jamb-figure, but instead a self-sufficient statue full of life and passionate movement. The baroque character of the movement, modelling, and drapery shatters the traditional conception of the Virgin. The link between mother and child has become a tragic dialogue, in which the Son, pulling away from Mary, seems to admonish her.
|
