Virgin and Child Enthroned Venetian Sculptor

In the Italian art of the fourteenth century, alongside ceremonial and formal representations of the enthroned Virgin and Child, there was a growing trend for more intimate portrayals that emphasised the Virgin’s motherhood, with Mary turning her head towards the infant in her lap. The Budapest statue belongs in this second group, based on the position of Mary’s head, as reconstrued during the restoration process. Seated on the Virgin’s knee and dressed in a mantle, the infant Jesus holds a book in his left hand, while his right hand is raised as if in blessing. Based on compositional parallels, Mary’s left hand, which is missing, may have been holding fruit. The sculpture, which was once regarded as a fifteenth-century Umbrian work, is more likely – in view of its composition and the soft and generous moulding – to have been made in Venice in the second half of the fourteenth century.