French & Company, New York, circa 1950

George R. Hann, Pittsburgh, sold Christie's New York, at Treetops, Sewickley Hꦗeights, Pennsylvania, May 19, 1980, lot 190

RELATED LITERATURE

Antoine Le Moiturier, le dernier des grands imagiers des ducs de Bourgogne, exh.cat., Musée de Dijon, 1973

S. Lami, Dictionnaire de Sculpteurs de l'École Francaise, vol. I, Paris, 1898 (reprinted 1970), ꧑pp.344-347

F. Baron, Sculpture Française. I-Moyen Áge, Musée du Louvre, 1996, pp. 182, 183 and 207.

Antoine Le Moiturier is known for his work for the Ducs de Burgundy as well as for his altarpieces including a Last Judgement for St. Pierre, Avignon, his city of birth, commissioned in 1461. Destroyed in the 17th century, there survive two three-quarter life-size angels now in the Musée du Petit Palais, Avignon. In 1462, he was sent to Dijon upon the recommendation of Agnes of Burgundy, where he agreed to complete the alabaster and black marble tomb of Duke John the Fearless and Margaret of Bavaria, begun by Juan de la Huerta for the Charterhouse Champmol. In 1480, he is thought to have executed in Entombment group in Semur-en-Auxois, Burgundy,�🌊� which illustrates characteristics of his distinct sculptural style.

The St. Pierre angels, the Saint John comforting the mourning Virgin in the Semur Entombment  and the kneeling figure of Thomas de Plaine (Baron, op.cit., fig.RF 1679, p. 207) were all executed with the same broad, squarish  face and jaw,  sharp and pinched nose, and similarly treated mouth which relate directly to the present sculpture. The drapery of the above discussed sculptures is also comparable to the present piece in the way it falls in long, straight fold𝕴s which break at the ankles.