  About the Artwork
  
  
  Luis Salvador Carmona, one of the foremost sculptors of the Spanish Rococo, carved this Virgin and Child from many blocks of wood, skillfully lending Mary's garments the complex silhouettes then fashionable in Madrid. The sculptor personally oversaw the layered application of paint and gilding to his works, and the figures' skin and clothing retain their original, glowing surfaces.

A document dated 1750 attests to Carmona's creation of this sculpture for the Chapel of the Royal Tapestry Factory in Madrid.The work was likely commissioned by the manufactory's first director, Jacob Vandergotten, who emigrated along with many weavers from Flanders (present-day Belgium), a region famed for tapestry that had formed deep ties with Spain when both territories were ruled by members of the House of Hasburg. The sculpture depicts the infant Jesus grasping a cross upon which he meditates, iconography popular in the patron's homeland but unusual in Spain. Vandergotten and his weavers formed a devotional brotherhood dedicated to Jesus and Mary, and this dedication may have informed Carmona's design, who counted such confraternities among his best clients.
  
  
  Title
  Virgin and Child
  
  
  Artwork Date
  ca. 1750
  
  Artist
  Luis Salvador Carmona
  
  
  
  Life Dates
  1708-1767
  
  
  
  
  Nationality
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events.
  Some definitions include:
  Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation.
  
  
  
  Spanish
  
  
  
  Culture
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group.
  
  
  
  
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  Medium
  Polychrome coniferous wood, glass
  
  
  Dimensions
  Overall: 51 1/2 × 25 × 19 inches (130.8 × 63.5 × 48.3 cm)
  
  
  Classification
  Sculpture
  
  
  Department
  European Sculpture and Dec Arts
  
  
  Credit
  Museum Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund and Ernest and Rosemarie Kanzler Foundation Fund
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  2016.31
  
  
  Copyright
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