Marble Virgin and Child in the Cloisters, June 2011

Virgin and Child

Date: ca. 1350

Geography: Made in Champagne, France

Culture: French

Medium: Marble with gilding

Dimensions: Overall: 34 5/8 x 10 3/4 x 5 7/8 in., 78lb. (87.9 x 27.3 x 14.9 cm, 35380.6g)

Classification: Sculpture

Credit Line: Gift of George Blumenthal, 1928

Accession Number: 28.76

Description:

The Virgin is shown with a crown and scepter as the Queen of Heaven. Her scepter, depicted as a rose branch, alludes to the homily of the Virgin as the rose without thorns (or without sin) or as the rose of Jericho that sprang up at the resting places of the Holy Family during the Flight into Egypt. The dove held by the Christ Child represents peace, purity and the Holy Spirit. This work, with its elegant proportions and horizontal, looping drapery folds, is related in style to a large sculpture of the Virgin and Child given to the abbey of St.-Denis in 1340 by Jeanne d'Evreux, the widowed queen of Charles IV. Her tiny book of hours can be found in The Cloisters Treasury.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/466799