Italian school. Central Italy, XVI century.

Italian school. Central Italy, XVI century.
"Madonna and Child".
Relief in cartapesta, polychrome.
Good state of preservation.
Measurements: 77 x 60 x 4 cm.

Splendid Renaissance high relief in cartapesta that represents with great delicacy and attention to detail the Madonna and Child Jesus. It follows the model of the Virgin of the Milk or Nourishing Virgin, showing her breast uncovered to suckle the baby. This one takes in his left hand the orb and on his naked torso hangs a golden necklace, of the same color as the nimbus and the purity cloth. The little legs have been skillfully turned. The Virgin, with her idelized and harmonious features, tilts her head in a gesture of tenderness. The blue tunic has been draped in naturalistic language, falling in deep and accomplished folds. The relief comes from central Italy, probably from Tuscany, where the Madonnas in cartapesta have an important artistic tradition.

The term cartapesta comes from Italy. It is the name given to the technique of using hand-cut pieces of paper that are glued in several layers to a previously shaped mold to create the sculpture. To glue the paper, paste was generally used. It could be considered a variant of papier-mâché.

The theme of the Virgin of the Milk is an invocation and iconography of the Virgin Mary in which she is represented in the act of breastfeeding the Baby Jesus or with her breast uncovered. This representation has had various developments in sacred art, such as painting, sculpture and the particular iconography of the Orthodox Church. The representation of the Virgin suckling the baby Jesus is mentioned by Pope Gregory the Great, a mosaic with this representation probably dating back to the 12th century is found on the façade of the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere, although a few other examples from the early Middle Ages still survive. It is considered that this invocation may be a syncretism of the mother-goddesses, in particular of the goddess Isis suckling Horus, and probably the earliest images appeared in Coptic art. The Milk Grotto is a place in Bethlehem, very close to the Basilica of the Nativity, where tradition says that the Virgin suckled the Child, and a drop spilled on a rock, which changed its color, becoming white. Because of this, stones from the grotto (made of calcium carbonate) were considered relics in the early centuries because, when diluted in water, the water took on the appearance of milk. The sanctuary erected in this place is used by women who ask the Virgin to improve the quality of their mother's milk. A theme in Christian hagiography linked to the nursing Virgin is that of Lactatio Bernardi, according to which the Virgin appeared in a dream to a monk and, by giving him some of her milk, granted him a miraculous gift.