Detail of a Virgin & Child in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, February 2010

Virgin and Child
Alabaster with gilding
French, from the Cistercian abbey of Pont-aux-Dames
Carved about 1340

Accession # 17.190.721

This statuette is one of the most elegant images of the Virgin and Child produced in fourteenth-century France. The fine details of the carving as well as of the original gilding make this a most precious document of sculptural style associated with contemporary court patronage. The work may have been the gift of Jeanne d'Evreux (d. 1371), queen of France, to the Cistercian convent of Pont-aux-Dames located near one of the royal chateaux.

The original gilt metal crown is now lost, which explains the smooth rounded surface at the top of the virgin's head. The eucharistic pyxis, held in the Virgin's right hand and blessed by the Christ Child, prefigures the passion.

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.