Our Lady of the Purification
Author: Unknown
Date: 16th century, end
Material: Polychromed limestone
Dimensions (cm): H 61,5 x W 17,5 x D 21
Provenance: Unknown
Inventory No.: MAS E 58
Our Lady, in a slightly bent position, wearing a reddish tunic, a greenish mantle and a crown on the head, holds Child Jesus in her left arm and her right hand holds the Child’s foot. The Child, partially enveloped in a white cloth, has a dove in his left hand and, with his right hand, he seems to be caressing the Virgin’s hair.
Our Lady of the Purification is one of the many titles by which the Catholic Church worships the Virgin Mary. The designation is associated with the ritual of the Leviticus, in the Holy Bible, according to which all women who gave birth were impure for forty days, after which they should present the child in the temple and there leave her offer: doves or turtledoves.