Ivory Virgin and Child with Cradle in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, December 2008

Ivory Virgin and Child with Cradle
Carved in German (upper Rhine), about 1350-1400

Accession # 17.190.182

Here, a rare subject seems to reflect and reinforce 14th century devotional practices encouraging the imitation of Mary, especially among women. Nuns in convents were often given dolls and cradles (one may be seen in the Museum's Medieval Sculpture Hall) designed to help cultivate devotion through enacting a mother's care of the Christ Child and to prompt visionary experiences of personal encounters with him.

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.