Virgin and Child

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Virgin and Child
Salzburg; ca. 1400

The polychrome wooden Virgin and Child is a representative example of the regional school of Gothic sculpture developed in Central Europe around 1400. This masterly carved statue of the crowned Virgin with a distinctly beautiful and noble face and richly draped clothing is almost natural size and a typical example of the so-called Schöne Madonnen ("Fair Virgins") which is characteristic of International Gothic that spread over most European political and artistic centres at the end of the 14th and the beginning of the 15th c.