The Virgin and Child (Virgo Lactans)

This ivory statuette of the Virgin and Child (Virgo Lactans) is possibly carved in England in the last quarter of the 13th century. The small sculpture is of fine quality, carved with real feeling for the soft undulation of the material, and the heads are highly distinctive.

Three dimensional images of the Virgin and Child were ubiquitous from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries, produced in a wide range of materials and sizes and testifying the overwhelming devotion to th Virgin. Together with the Crucifixion, statues and statuettes of the Virgin and Child were the pricipal objects of devotion in the Christian Church, and vast numbers were made for ecclesisastical, monastic and private worship.