Lot Essay
'I began thinking of the Madonna and Child for St. Matthew's by considering in what ways a Madonna and Child is different 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 austerity and a nobility, and some touch of grandeur (even hieratic aloofness) which is missing in the everyday Mother and Child idea.
I have tried to give a sense of complete easiness and repose, as though the Madonna could stay in that position forever (as, being in stone, she will have to do).' (Henry Moore, in D. Mitchison, Henry Moore Sculpture, with comments by the artist, London, 1981, p.90).
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 austerity and a nobility, and some touch of grandeur (even hieratic aloofness) which is missing in the everyday Mother and Child idea.
I have tried to give a sense of complete easiness and repose, as though the Madonna could stay in that position forever (as, being in stone, she will have to do).' (Henry Moore, in D. Mitchison, Henry Moore Sculpture, with comments by the artist, London, 1981, p.90).