France, Second Half Of The 15th Century, Sculpture Of Saint Jean De Réôme (h 73cm)

Saint John was born in the 5th century in Dijon. Deeply religious, he was one of the first hermits in Europe, and left for northern Burgundy, an almost desert area in the 5th century.
As the reputation of his wisdom spread outside Auxois, many disciples followed him. He decides to build them a monastery, in a modest hamlet called Réomé, named after the stream that crosses it...
During his retirement in Burgundy, Jean arrived not far from Tonnerre. In search of water, he learns that an evil snake, the basilisk, is protecting an underground spring and attacking local farmers.
Courageous, he then purged the basilisk pit. This animal is the symbol of the malarial disease which was ravaging the valley at the time. It was through the work of the monks that the swamp was cleaned up.

The dark habit of the Benedictines, his beardless face shows him to us as he is described. His elongated left arm indicates that he had to extract the basil from the well, with the other hand holding his staff.
Its clothing is characteristic of the medieval period with the style of the drapery, the hood with a pointed notch towards the neck, significant of the Benedictine clothing as well as the parallelism of the vertical dominants.
His face, marked with great firmness and gentleness, is similar to the Autun workshops of the end of the 15th century.
The cheekbones are prominent, the forehead is broad and the nose is straight.

In good condition with losses due to time.
Dimensions: H 73 cm / L 20 cm / W 14 cm

Comes from a large private collection