Virgin and Child with a Bird (c. 1350): Art, History and Details

Virgin and Child with a Bird (c. 1350) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The Virgin and Child represents one of the most frequent subjects for free-standing sculpture in 14th-century France, motivated by the developing cult of the Virgin and increasing veneration of Mary. Such sculptures were not restricted to churches, but were also found in roadside shrines, entrances to towns, and domestic use in private chapels. The small scale of this statuette suggests it was made for private veneration. The bird, held in the Virgin’s right hand, was a well-known symbol of the human soul and represents Christ’s role as redeemer of humankind.

Object facts

• Title: Virgin and Child with a Bird
• Date: c. 1350
• Culture: France, Île-de-France, Paris, 14th century
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: marble
• Dimensions: without base: 54.6 x 17.8 cm (21 1/2 x 7 in.)
• Collection: MED - Gothic
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1942.784

Collection credit

Bequest of John L. Severance

Further reading listed by the museum

• Catalogue of the John L. Severance Collection: Bequest of John L. Severance, 1936. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1942.
• Milliken, William. "A Fourteenth Century 'Angel of the Annunciation.'" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 42, no. 6 (June 1955): 118-120
• Wixom, William D. Treasures from Medieval France. [Cleveland]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1967.

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.