Nostre Dame de Grasse, detail of
the Child's face, after restoration.
Photo Daniel Martin. Like the great majority of medieval sculptures, Nostre Dame de Grasse was entirely polychrome. While the palette of colours and decorative techniques used are characteristic of the late Middle Ages, the polychrome style denotes an exceptional concern for elegance and refinement. The uniform white of the Virgin’s mantle, which accentuates the fullness and weight of the sculpted garment, enhances the refinement of the finely executed details. The beaded decorations around the neck of the Virgin’s robe and the crown used to frame wooden or metal elements, possibly ornamented with stones or coloured glass, but which have now disappeared. This refinement was also expressed by the presence of small motifs (now imperceptible) on the Virgin’s robe and the Child’s tunic.
As was usual at the end of the Middle Ages, the painter introduced a contrasting play of colours. The gold is shaded in places with red, blue and white glazes, thought to indicate the Virgin’s garments. Those of the Child are carmine red and green. The material effects are varied: alongside the glistening brilliance of the golds and transparency of the glazes are large flat areas, some matt, others satiny. The thickness or extreme thinness of the layers were intentional and perceptible. All the colours were obtained by superimposing two or three successive layers, indicating a desire for quality and no doubt substantial resources. The binders detected are mainly oily. Oil mixed with proteins is evidence of an emulsion’s having been used for the smooth grey-white tone on the cuff of the robe.
An initial oily undercoat, more or less evident, served as a filler. Then various undercoats were applied before the colours. The Virgin’s robe was 
Recreation of the original polychrome.
Réalisation realFusio. painted blue (the vividness of which has faded) and was strewn with fine golden decorations of which only traces remain but which suggest a star-shaped motif.
The linings of the garments were carved to imitate fur. The cuff of the robe was painted grey tinged with white impasto to suggest miniver, the fur of a type of Russian squirrel. This naturalistic representation contrasts with the distinctive treatment of the revers of the Virgin’s white mantle, gilded fur accentuated with a red glaze, and the lining of the Child’s tunic, which was painted using copper green.
The white layer of the Virgin’s mantle (lead white) was not very thick; it allowed traces of the fashioning to show through. Gilding on a base of size (an oily layer full of yellow and orange pigments) was very widely used, with nuances that varied according to where it was applied: thus the gold on the collar of the Virgin’s robe was enhanced with beaded decorations coloured by a red glaze.
The book held by the Virgin was protected by a sleeve of precious fabric depicted using the technique known as pressed brocade: decorations were produced in sharp relief by stamping, then applied to the sculpture. But the pattern was only obtained by painting and did not necessarily follow the direction of the grooves, thus simplifying a technique that was well known in Northern Europe.
The Child was clothed in a deep red tunic, edged mostly with gold, obtained by superimposing several layers: silver leaf on a base of size, covered by a red glaze onto which was painted a pattern of bright orange lozenges.
And lastly the flesh tints, which were remarkably well rendered: they were very pale and are very well preserved, still retaining the low relief given by the brush strokes.
The use of blue, white and gold for the Virgin is consistent with medieval tradition in the late Middle Ages. But the presence of gilding on the fur revers of the mantle is a feature specific to Nostre Dame de Grasse.