The Virgin and Child - Thuringia School, c.1510 - 1520

We see a Virgin and Child, standing on a crescent moon. Mary wears a crown and stands upright, with long wavy hair. She carries the curly-haired Christ Child on her right arm. Both figures are richly polychromed. Her cloak is gilded, with a blue lining.
The crescent moon beneath Mary’s feet refers to the Book of Revelation (12:1): “a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of twelve stars”. In this way Mary was identified with the Woman of the Apocalypse, a figure of victory over darkness. The Virgin on the crescent moon combines two pictorial types: the standing Virgin and Child and the apocalyptic motif. She is linked to the idea of the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption, and can also be read as a symbol of the Church. The crown refers to Mary as Queen of Heaven. Dürer made four engravings of the Virgin and Child on a crescent moon. The motif was especially popular towards the end of the fifteenth century and is seen as characteristic of the “old” faith at the beginning of the Reformation.

Sculpted in wood
We’d like to thank dr. Michael Rief for his advice.
Dimensions: 42 x 16 x 6 cm