Detail of an Enthroned Virgin and Child in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, April 2011

Title: Enthroned Virgin and Child

Date: mid-14th century

Geography: Made in probably Umbria, Tuscany, Central Italy

Culture: Italian

Medium: Wooden core, painted canvas and gesso

Dimensions: Virgin and Child only: 64 1/4 × 35 × 14 3/4 in., 54 lb. (163.2 × 88.9 × 37.5 cm, 24.5 kg)

Classification: Sculpture-Wood

Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1916

Object Number: 16.154.10a, b

The sculpture is created by pressing linen reinforced with glue into shallow molds and mounting the figure on a wood backing and adding paint and gilding. This work seems to be a unique surviving example of this technique. The Virgin is seated upon a throne displaying lion heads, a reference to the Throne of Solomon.

Significantly, a number of votive offerings are incorporated into the interior of the figure: a pearl rosary and bobbin lace and other fabrics. The figure is said to have come from the convent of Santa Chiara in Vaglia, Tuscany, indicating that it was probably made for a Clarissan convent, a sister order following the Franciscan rule.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/463706