AUSTRIAN, POSSIBLY SALZBURG, CIRCA 1425

The voluminous drapery cascading down from each arm in zig-zag folds and the lively Christ child supported by the Virgin's left hand place this graceful work in a group of Schöne Madonnen that evolved from the court of the House of Luxembourg, the ruling family of Bohemia, and spread south to Austria and further afield. The positioning of the Christ child counterbalances the gentle contrapposto of the Virgin, seen in works in Austria, and often Salzburg, in the early fifteenth century.