Devotional Statuette of the Virgin and Child in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, December 2008

Devotional Statuette of the Virgin and Child
Walnut
Carved in France (Burgundy) or the Southern Netherlands (present-day Belgium), about 1400-1420

Accession # 41.100.203

The unusual depiction of the Christ child both nursing and blessing conveys a domestic tenderness that became increasingly evident in the cult of the Virgin. Originally painted, such statuettes would have been incorporated into small shrines for devotion within the home. In many respects this charming figure is a microversion of the great work attributed to Claus de Werve (d. 1439), a Netherlandish sculptor working in Burgundy, on view in the center of the Museum's Medieval Sculpture Hall, to the south of this gallery.

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.