Virgin And Child

VIRGIN EN MAJESTY (or Sedes Sapientiae, "Throne of Wisdom") ........... 13th CENTURY VIRGIN EN MAJESTY Carved and polychrome softwood. The crowned Virgin, wearing a stylized pleated mantle, sits frontally on a columned throne without a back, known as the "Throne of Wisdom," as was the custom in the 13th century for the Sedes Sapientiae. She is the throne of wisdom incarnate in her son Jesus, whom she presents to Christendom. Her left hand holds the Child in a protective gesture; her missing right hand would have held a globe, both an image of the world and the earth and an expression of power, or an apple, an image of original sin. She offers the Christ Child to the veneration of the faithful. The polychrome mantle, adorned with stars, covers her shoulders and falls to the bottom on either side. The Christ Child, whose duality is evident, adopts, as God, a solemn, expressionless face, for it is he who teaches the way of Salvation and saves humanity. He holds the Book of Scripture in his left hand and blesses with his right. Mother and Son are united in the same strange, fixed, and distant gaze. The folds of the still-long garments place this sculpture early in its period. The frontality, axiality, hieratic quality, and symmetry of the figures are characteristic of Romanesque works. As is often the case in Spain, the Child and the Virgin wear crowns. Light in size, the sculpture of the Virgin in Majesty was intended to be moved in and out of the church during processions and to be visible from all angles, hence its three-dimensionality. This Virgin and Child thus appears as a very fine example of 13th-century Spanish art and has survived in a good state of preservation. Catalonia, Romanesque period, around 1200. Height 53 cm; width 20 cm (damage, losses, alterations to the polychromy and the primer) Reference: The Catalan Art Museum and Marès Museum in Barcelona, as well as the Episcopal Museum of Seo de Urgel, contain sculptures of this type in their collections.