Standing Virgin and Child

Circle of Jakob Kaschauer

ca. 1440 · Limewood with paint · The Cloisters

In the early 1440s the sculptor Jakob Kaschauer was commissioned to create new statues for the high altar of the cathedral of Freising. These figures, preserved today in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum in Munich, include a striking figure of the Virgin Mary holding the infant Christ in an unusual diagonal pose in front of her body. This formulation soon became widely influential in southern Germany and Austria, where several statues with similar compositions were produced during the same decade. This example is among the earliest in the group and was likely produced by another artist with direct knowledge of the Freising altar. The crown and the lower portion of the statue, beginning just below the knees, are modern restorations copied after late medieval models.

Artist

Circle of Jakob Kaschauer

Date

ca. 1440

Medium

Limewood with paint

Culture

Austrian

Department

The Cloisters

Credit line

The Cloisters Collection, 1962