Description
This beautiful sculpture, notable for its presence and its scale, depicts the Virgin of the Apocalypse, standing on her Crescent Moon supported by the head of a winged Seraph.
With her hands joined and her gaze lowered in prayer, her long wavy locks fall over her chest and her sloping shoulders. The Virgin wears a dress belted high at the waist, with puffed sleeves and tight, fitted folds at the wrists. The dress is covered by a wide damask cloak, fastened at the chest with a shell-shaped clasp. The cherubic-faced seraph spreads its wings, which take on the form of the crescent moon.
In the late 15th century, Spain experienced a significant influx of sculptors from the Southern Netherlands and the Lower Rhine region. In Spain, they continued to use the northern sculptural language while enriching it with a wide range of surface decorations characteristic of Iberian art, thus creating some of the most splendid Catholic interiors in Europe.
This Virgin of the Apocalypse was probably carved by a Northern artist. The carefully defined, crescent-shaped locks of hair flowing on either side of the Virgin’s face, as well as the broken and angular folds of the cloak, strongly support this attribution.