| Detroit Institute of Arts Museum

This sculpture portrays the seated Virgin Mary as the Throne of Wisdom (sedes sapientiae), a popular devotional image during the Romanesque period. The Virgin appears here not as the mother of a child but rather as the mother of God, an icon stiffly presenting the figure of the infant Jesus on her lap while he raises his arm in a gesture of benediction. Such wood images were placed on altars, where they were the objects of religious devotion, but they were also at times carried in processions and appeared in liturgical dramas like the enactment of the story of the Three Wise Men.

Until 1930, (Enrico Testa) (Florence, Italy)

1930-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

Heil, W. "An Italian Wood Madonna of the Thirteenth Century." Bulletin of the DIA 12, 2 (1930): p. 19 (ill.). Valentiner, W.R. Italian Gothic and Early Renaissance Sculpture. Exh. cat., DIA. Detroit, 1938, no. 1 (ill.) [unpaginated]. Francovich, Geza de. Scultura Medioevale in Legno. Rome, 1943, pp. 6-7 (pl. 6). Carli, Enzo. Bois Sculptés Polychromes du XIIème au XVIème Siècle en Italie. Milan, 1963, p. 23 (pl. 20). Treasures from the Detroit Institute of Arts, Exh. cat., The Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1966, p. 61. Sculture Antiche dal II Secolo. Abbazia Santa Maria di Chiaravalle. Milan, (fig. 4, pl. 5) Lieveaux-Boccador, Jacqueline and Edouard Bresset. Statuaire Medievale de Collection. 1972, pp. 60-61. Darr, A. P. "A Valentiner Legacy: Italian Sculpture in Detroit." Apollo 124 (December 1986): pp. 476-477. Lorenzelli, J., P.Lorenzelli, and A. Veca. Custode dell'Immagine, Scultura Lignea Europea XII-XV Secolo. Bergamo, 1987, p. 158-161 (fig. 182). Darr, A. P., P. Barnet, A. Boström, with contributions by C. Avery... [et. al.]. Catalogue of Italian Sculpture in the Detroit Institute of Arts,2 vols. London, 2002, cat. 31.

Italian, Madonna and Child Enthroned, ca. 1225, polychromed and gilded poplar. Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Edsel B. Ford, 30.383.