Throne of Wisdom

Northeast Spain, 1280-1300
The Cloisters, New York City

This Throne of Wisdom keeps some of the elements that characterized the genre in the Romanesque period. The figures face the viewer directly, the throne has no back, and the child holds a book. But the figures are "humanized" by their smiles and the casually draped clothing. The child is displaced from the center of the lap to his mother's left knee, and her right hand seconds his salutation to the viewer rather than holding his torso.

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Photographed at the Cloisters by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.