Artwork Page for Virgin Nursing the Christ Child

Details / Information for Virgin Nursing the Christ Child

Virgin Nursing the Christ Child

c. 1370

France, Île de France

Medium
painted limestone
Measurements
Overall: 111 x 38.5 cm (43 11/16 x 15 3/16 in.)
Credit Line
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund 1984.157
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print
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Did You Know?

The back of this sculpture is unfinished since it would have originally been placed against a wall or pier.

Description

This sculpture of the Virgin Mary nursing the Christ child subtly emphasizes the intimate relationship between mother and child and brings the Son of God in his human existence closer to the viewer. The emotional interaction is characteristic of sculpture since the mid-1300s, especially in the circles close to the court of the French kings in Paris and Emperor Charles IV (reigned 1346–78) in Prague. These novel stylistic tendencies were possibly a reaction to the fear and uncertainty incurred by the first great plague wave in 1348.
Pigmented limestone sculpture of the Virgin Mary, a woman with light skin tone and red-blond wavy hair under a wrap and crown, nursing a baby Christ with the same skin tone and hair color. The Virgin is draped in red fabric falling in folds and uncovering her right breast from which baby Christ, nude save for a light cloth around his waist, nurses. The Virgin looks down and to our left.

Virgin Nursing the Christ Child

c. 1370

France, Île de France

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