 |
Madonna and Child
France, ca. 1380
Limestone with traces of polychrome.
Height: 36 1/2 in. (93 cm)
Robert Sterling Clark Foundation Fund. 71.91
In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the Virgin became the object
of intense and widespread devotion. As the cult of the Virgin spread in
the Gothic period, she came to be regarded as the youthful and aristocratic
embodiment of both Christian and chivalric ideals. Particularly after the
middle of the thirteenth century, the Virgin was represented not only as
a delicate, smiling Queen of Heaven, but also as tender and maternal.
This standing Virgin and Child represents one of the more affectionate
variants of this maternal image, called a Virgo lactans because she
is nursing the child as she coddles him. The gently swaying posture, voluminous
drapery folds, and cascading curvilinear hemlines conform to the characteristics
of French sculpture of the Ile de France in the middle of the fourteenth
century. The long tresses of hair falling well below the shoulders, and
the squat face with heavy lidded eyes and high cheekbones, however, suggest
a more provincial origin and possibly a later date.
|
