The Nursing Virgin

Paris, c.1340

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This disarmingly intimate sculpture depicts the Virgin and Child in the form of the Virgo Lactans or Nursing Virgin, an iconography that emerged in western Europe at the beginning of the fourteenth century following earlier Byzantine precedents.

Standing in a so-called déhanchement pose with her body forming a pronounced S-curve, the Virgin supports the Christ Child as he suckles at her breast. The infant’s seated pose, high on his mother’s chest, brings their two heads into close alignment and forcefully emphasises the bond between them, conveying an unusually vivid sense of intimacy and tenderness.

The delicate way in which the Virgin touches the Child's foot with the thumb and forefinger of her left hand, and the gentle placement of the infant’s right hand on his mother’s chest, its fingers on her dress but the thumb caressing her skin, are tenderly observed and keenly studied, underscoring a naturalistic interaction between mother and son which reflects the sculptor’s intention to visualise the sacred tenets of Biblical motherhood through a believable, emotive, and staunchly human lens.

The sculpture’s composition, stylistic idiosyncrasies and technical approach all indicate that it was carved in the Ile-de-France, and very likely in Paris itself, in the years around 1340. Countless numbers of extraordinarily talented artists - drawn to the capital from near and far alike – applied their skills across a broad array of materials under the patronage of the wealthy royal courts, the clerical elite, and the buoyant open market. They helped develop a forceful new aesthetic language, creating increasingly elegant and lifelike interpretations of sacred image types, including of course the Virgin and Child. Nonetheless, against the wider aesthetic backdrop of the city’s productive sculpture workshops during these years, our group emerges as an especially accomplished version of this popular image type.

Features including the Virgin's slender proportions, flowing mantle, graceful S-curve, and richly articulated drapery are firmly anchored in the visual trends emerging from the capital’s ateliers in the second quarter of the century, but its refinement and execution are exceptional. Its closest stylistic parallels suggest that it originated within the circle of the celebrated sculptor Évrard d'Orléans, who led one of the leading Parisian workshops of the period and enjoyed the patronage of the royal court for much of his career.

Also of note is just how rare wood sculpture is from this period. Comparable figural groups in stone and precious metal have survived in some numbers, but although they were once ubiquitous devotional images in the region’s churches, cathedrals, and wealthy private chapels, only a tiny number survive in wood (in this case walnut), and far fewer still that preserve any aspect of their original polychromy. That our group retains an almost complete colour scheme, including large swathes of shimmering gold and silver leaf embellishment, is astonishing.

A surprising accident of survival and a tender image of outstanding craftsmanship, our Virgin and Child offers invaluable insights into the devotional imagery and artistic innovation of Gothic France during the golden age of courtly art.