The Virgin and Blessing Child Enthroned
2023 © Maxim Tabachnik
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The Virgin and Blessing Child Enthroned

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This sculpted and painted wood group (1290–1310) from the Umbrian-Abruzzese school shows the Virgin enthroned with the Christ Child on her lap. The Child raises his right hand in blessing and holds a book, a standard attribute of sacred teaching. The school, active between central Italy’s hill towns, favored elongated figures and clear frontality in painted and carved works. These traits, along with the preserved polychromy, articulate regional ideals of authority in devotional images.