In medieval sculpture, individual body parts were often accentuated to convey meaning. Here, Mary’s oversized hands direct our attention to Jesus, enthroned upon his mother’s lap. This type of sculpture, much favored in the twelfth century, is known as a Throne of Wisdom (Sedes Sapientiae).
Appearing like a miniature adult, Jesus, as the Son of God, is Wisdom incarnate. He would have grasped a Bible, a further reference to the concept of divine wisdom that he embodies. Mary is both sculpture and vessel—her body has a cavity behind her shoulder, which suggests the work was a container for holy relics. Such devotional statues may have been carried in church processions.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Virgin and Child in Majesty
Date:ca. 1175–1200
Geography:Made in Auvergne, France
Culture:French
Medium:Walnut with paint, tin relief on a lead white ground, and linen
Dimensions:Overall: 31 5/16 x 12 1/2 x 11 1/2 in. (79.5 x 31.7 x 29.2 cm)
Classification:Sculpture-Wood
Credit Line:Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1916
Object Number:16.32.194a, b
Emile Molinier, Paris (sold to Hoentschel, date unknown); Georges Hoentschel (French); J. Pierpont Morgan (American), London and New York (until 1917)
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"Local Traditions and Itinerant Artists? The Crucifixes of Auvergne and Wooden Sculpture in France during the Late Romanesque Period." Convivium: exchanges and interactions in the arts of Medieval Europe, Byzantium, and the Mediterranean IV, no. 2 (2017). pp. 58, 59 n. 24, 60, 65, 67 n. 50, 68, 71, fig. 3, 10, 12.
Bolton, Andrew, ed. Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination. Vol. 2. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2018. pp. 159, 184.
Kargère, Lucretia Goddard. "The Lavaudieu Corpus at The Cloisters." In Christ on the Cross: the Boston Crucifix and the Rise of Monumental Wood Sculpture, 970–1200, edited by Shirin Fozi, and Gerhard Lutz. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols Publishers, 2020. p. 297.
Little, Charles T., and Miguel Ayres de Campos. The McCarthy Collection: Sculpture. Vol. IV. London: Ad Ilissvm, 2024. fig. 31.2, pp. 84, 86.
Conservator Lucretia Kargère discusses two twelfth-century sculptures in the Museum's collection that have been reunited at The Met Cloisters on the occasion of Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination.
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