Enthroned Virgin with the Writing Christ Child (c. 1400): Art, History and Details

Enthroned Virgin with the Writing Christ Child (c. 1400) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This sculpture belongs to a tradition of seated Virgins that were prominent in Netherlandish art in the decades around 1400, and by extension may be associated with the Valois courts at Paris, Dijon, and Bourges. The theme of the Christ child who writes into an open book or onto a vellum banderole emerged during the third quarter of the 14th century and had great appeal among ecclesiastical and aristocratic clients. It undoubtedly refers to the educating and nurturing role of the mother in teaching the child, but also to the future position of the adult Christ as author and teacher. The small scale of this sculpture and the fact that its back is uncarved suggest that it was made for a small alcove or niche, appropriate in the intimate setting of a small chapel or oratory. The sculpture would have primarily been viewed from the front and perhaps from slightly below.

Object facts

• Title: Enthroned Virgin with the Writing Christ Child
• Date: c. 1400
• Culture: Franco-Netherlandish, active Paris(?), 15th century
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: limestone with polychromy and gilding
• Dimensions: Overall: 44.8 x 31.5 x 15 cm (17 5/8 x 12 3/8 x 5 7/8 in.)
• Collection: MED - Gothic
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1970.13

A detail from the museum

Here the Virgin is sitting on a highly decorated pillow.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Parkhurst, Jr. Charles P. "The Madonna of the Writing Christ Child" Art Bulletin 23 (1941).
• Müller, Theodor, Elaine Scott, and William Robson Scott. Sculpture in the Netherlands, Germany, France, and Spain: 1400 to 1500. Baltimore: Penguin, 1966.
• Wixom, William D. “An Enthroned Madonna with the Writing Christ Child.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 57, no. 9 (1970).

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.