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Lot Essay
The present work was one of several terracotta maquettes created by Moore as a result of a commission to carve a Madonna and Child for St. Matthew's Church, Northampton in 1943.
Moore commented on this commission: 'I began thinking of the Madonna and Child for St. Matthew's by considering in what ways a Madonna and Child differs from a carving of just a Mother and Child that is, by considering, how in my opinion religious art differs from secular art. It's not easy to describe in words what this difference is, except by saying in general terms that the Madonna and Child should have an austerity and a nobility, and some touch of grandeur (even hierarchic aloofness) which is missing in the everyday Mother and Child idea'
(see Henry Moore Sculpture, Drawings, Prints - Introductory Notes, catalogue for the exhibition at Alex Rosenberg Gallery, New York, April-May 1981).
Moore commented on this commission: 'I began thinking of the Madonna and Child for St. Matthew's by considering in what ways a Madonna and Child differs from a carving of just a Mother and Child that is, by considering, how in my opinion religious art differs from secular art. It's not easy to describe in words what this difference is, except by saying in general terms that the Madonna and Child should have an austerity and a nobility, and some touch of grandeur (even hierarchic aloofness) which is missing in the everyday Mother and Child idea'
(see Henry Moore Sculpture, Drawings, Prints - Introductory Notes, catalogue for the exhibition at Alex Rosenberg Gallery, New York, April-May 1981).