Virgin and Child

French

On view at The Met Cloisters in Gallery 08

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.

Virgin and Child, Marble with gilding, French

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Virgin and Child, Marble with gilding, French
Virgin and Child, Marble with gilding, French
Virgin and Child, Marble with gilding, French
Virgin and Child, Marble with gilding, French

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