Description
This beautiful, very finely sculpted Virgin of Tenderness is depicted standing, slightly swaying her hips. She carries the naked child in her right arm. The youthful face with almond-shaped eyes is framed by beautiful wavy hair with well-defined curls.
She is dressed in a simple dress with a round neckline and a golden and blue coat on the inside, featuring multiple well-pronounced pleats that drape over her left forearm like an apron. The beautiful, deep, and angular pleating, still medieval in its treatment, adds to the majesty of the sculpture.
The child with a joyful demeanor adopts the same features as his mother, with a fine nose and thin lips. The resemblance here is clearly intentional. Free in his movements and smiling, he heralds the depictions of Jesus during the Renaissance. His childish beauty is also typical of sculpture from southern Germany.
The harmony of the drapery of the dress and the cloak, symbolically arranged in the shape of a mandorla, makes this Virgin a perfect illustration of the beginnings of what is commonly referred to from the 16th century onwards as the “Virgins of Tenderness.”