Images(4)

Virgin and Child Enthroned

Artist Unknown French artist , Auvergne region

Datecirca 1150–1200

MediumPolychrome with gilding on wood

Dimensions29 1/2 x 13 1/2 x 13 1/2 in. (74.9 x 34.3 x 34.3 cm)

ClassificationsSculpture

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the State of North Carolina

Object number62.1.7

On View

On view

Label TextIn medieval France, wooden sculptures such as this one became the focus of religious devotion and rituals reflecting the belief in the Virgin Mary as mediator between God and humankind. The image of the infant Jesus seated on the Virgin’s lap represents a medieval Christian concept known as the Throne of Wisdom, in which Mary serves as a throne for Christ, who in turn embodies divine wisdom.

A number of similar sculptures, all carved in central France in the second half of the twelfth century, survive. Traces of pigmentation, including in the present example, indicate they were originally painted. Designed to be seen from all sides, typically inside churches, on feast days they were carried aloft through towns, exciting the faithful.
[L. Humphrey, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," 2025]Published References"The Blair Collection," Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 7, no. 4 (April 1914), 58.

The Inaugural Exhibition (exhibition catalogue) (Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1916), cat. no. 17.

"Accessions of American and Canadian Museums," The Art Quarterly (1963), 250, illus. 252.

Supplement à la Gazette des Beaux-Arts no. 1129 (February 1963), cat. no. 88, illus. 20.

"Acquisitions," North Carolina Museum of Art Bulletin 4, nos. 2 and 3 (Winter-Spring 1964), briefly discussed 9, listed 64, illus. (b-w) 37.

Ilene H. Forsyth, The Throne of Wisdom (Good Sculptures of the Madonna in Romanesque France) (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972), 165, illus. fig. 84, reg. no. 24.

Rebecca Martin Nagy, entry for Madonna and Child in Majesty, in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, Rebecca Martin Nagy, ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1998), 69, 70, illus. (color) 70.

Jaroslav Folda, "Icon or Altarpiece? Reflections on the Kahn and Mellon Madonnas," Ideas 6, no. 1 (The National Humanities Center, 1999), 52, illus.

Linda Bennett Elder and Jean Gould Bryant, Creating Women: An Interdisciplinary Anthology of Readings on Women in Western Culture, Volume One, Prehistory through the Middle Ages (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005), mentioned 300, illus. (b-w) 301, fig. 14-4.

Myra Robinson, "The Throne of Wisdom" in North Carolina Museum of Art Volunteer News (Winter 2009), discussed and illus. (color) 3.

Rebecca Martin Nagy, entry for Madonna and Child in Majesty, in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 2010), 152, illus. (color) 153.
Exhibition HistoryChicago, IL, Art Institute, “The Mary Blair Collection of Medieval and Renaissance Art,” 1914.

Cleveland, OH, Cleveland Museum of Art, “The Inaugural Exhibition,” 1916, cat. no. 17.

Chapel Hill, NC, Ackland Memorial Art Center, Treasury of Medieval Art,” April 4-May 23, 1971.

Richmond, VA, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, “Masterpieces of the North Carolina Museum of Art,” March 11-April 13, 1975.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," October 7, 2022–March 4, 2024.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," March 26, 2024-present.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection Reimagined" (Thematic Gallery: "Devotion and the Arts in the People's Collection"), June 7, 2025-present. Object Rights Statement

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