Marble Virgin and Child in the Cloisters, Sept. 2007

Virgin and Child
Marble with gilding
France, Champagne, about 1350
From the parish church of Cernay-les-Reims

Accession # 28.76

The crown identifies the Virgin as the Queen of Heaven. Her scepter, depicted as a rose branch, may allude to the homily of the Virgin as the rose without thorns (or without sin). The dove held by the Christ Child is a reference to his Passion. This work, with its elegant proportions and horizontal, looping drapery folds, is related to a silver Virgin and Child (Musee du Louvre, Paris), given to the abbey of Saint-Denis in 1339 by Jeanne d'Evreux, the widowed queen of Charles IV. Jeanne's tiny book of hours is one of the masterpieces of The Cloisters Collection.

Text from the Cloisters label.