Madonna and Child (from Alistál, originally from Bratislava)
ca. 1500
wood
height: 170 cm
Inv. 56.839
This dignified life-size statue portrays the Virgin holding the Christ child on her arm. Originally it must have stood in the center of a large winged altarpiece on a side altar in Saint Martin’s Cathedral in Pozsony (present-day Bratislava, Slovakia). The Gothic altarpieces of the church were removed at the time of an 18th-century remodeling. This statue must have been transferred to the village church of Alistál, from where the Christian Museum purchased it. The work has preserved its beauty despite the woodworm damage and the loss of its original polychromy. It is an outstanding example of the late Gothic style in Hungary around 1500, showing, as some experts believe, the influence of Hans Multscher of Ulm (ca. 1400-1467).
I.K.
