Reference number: 78J / D356

Origin: Flanders-Tournai

Period: 1500

Provenance: Private Collection

Composition: Wool and silk

Dimesions: 1.40 L x 2.40 H

Paradoxically, while the infancy of Jesus is almost totally elided by the canonical evangelists, the subject of the Virgin and Child is the most represented theme of all Christian art before the crucifixion, even though it does not refer to any biblical text, but is probably the result of a reuse of an archaic theme (already present in the figure of the Egyptian goddess Isis breastfeeding Harpocrates, the infant Horus). Thus, there are numerous representations of the "woman with child" (breastfeeding or not) in most cultures of the world, including pre-Christian Europe.

In the early days of Christianity, European art favors the Virgin Mary represented in the Adoration of the Magi. In Romanesque painting and sculpture, the most frequently represented Virgins, from the tenth to the thirteenth century, are "Madonna and Child" sitting on a throne and holding a miniature adult Jesus on her lap. They are called sedes sapientiae, "Seat of Wisdom" or "Throne of Wisdom". In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Gothic art favored the central figure of the Virgin to the detriment of the Child, who was less and less dominant in the composition, while Baroque art at the time of the Counter-Reformation made him disappear completely to highlight a pure Virgin.

The axis of the gaze between the mother and the child is frequently underlined, as well as the symbolic signs of the fingers and hands of the baby, also found in a set of sculpted or painted characters in the churches of Christendom.

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