Cleveland Museum of Art

Virgin and Child

Date

c. 1315–20

Medium

limestone with traces of polychromy and gilding

Culture

France, Lorraine, 14th century

Department

Medieval Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This graceful Virgin and child is a beautiful example from a large number of such figures produced in Lorraine, in eastern France, during the early 1300s. Lorraine at the time had a well-established artistic tradition and was under the rule of the Counts of Bar with established cultural links to both Flanders and England. Many of the surviving Lorraine Virgins share common characteristics consistent with this example--the swaying posture, with the weight of the Virgin placed on the left foot; and an open mantle with an exposed belted gown, the girdle itself trailing to the ground and ornamented with rosettes. Such standing figures were likely made for use in parish churches, cathedrals, aristocratic oratories, and monastic chapels, and attest to the intense veneration rendered to the Virgin during the period. The CMA has a rare example of a similar woman’s belt (1930.742).

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