The Virgin Mary and Child, from the church in Krużlowa Wyżna
Author: Author unknown
Date of creation: around 1410
Dimensions: depth 21 cm, height 119 cm, width 45.5 cm
Technique: wooden sculpture, painted with tempera paints, with gilding and silvering
The Virgin Mary is depicted as a standing young woman with long hair. She holds a naked baby in her left arm. She wears a crown, a long red gown and a golden cloak in the form of loose fabric. The cloak covers almost her entire figure, bent in a way typical of medieval art. The woman’s head is tilted towards left shoulder and her narrow shoulders are tilted to her right. The left hip is bent to her left. The silhouette forms a shape resembling a large letter S. In the museum, the sculpture is placed on a wooden pedestal.
On the top of her head, we can see a crown in the form of a hoop. It is gilded and decorated with a painted geometric pattern made up of black lines, white dots, green and red ellipses. Her brown hair flows in carefully arranged curls, covered by a golden veil in the back. The woman’s gentle, perfectly smooth face is light pink. Her forehead is unusually high. It starts from the lower edge of the crown. Her eyebrows are marked with thin light brown lines. The large brown eyes look to the side. Her nose is straight, delicate. The rounded cheeks are tinted strongly with pink. Her mouth with a hint of a smile is painted red.
We can see a red gown poking out from under the cloak at her chest and at the very bottom, with a pleated strip of yellow fabric resting on the gown under the neck. The golden cloak is very large. It flows from the back, through the arms, to the very bottom in numerous careful folds. They create gently curved lines. From under the gown pokes out a dark tip of the right shoe.
The child sits on the elbow of his mother’s bent left arm. The hand is raised at waist level. The mother supports the child’s left thigh with her left hand; her right hand gently holding the boy’s right foot. The child has short brown hair, a high forehead, and a round face. His eyebrows are thin brown lines. The dark eyes look straight ahead. His chubby cheeks are pink, and the mouth, curving into a faint smile, is visibly red. The baby has very large, protruding ears. His naked body is light pink. In his right hand, the boy holds a yellow ball. It is a hollow sculpture.
