Madonna and Child

1533
Marble
Cathedral of the Transfiguration, Cefalu, Sicily

The child holds a small fruit in his right hand.

On the right side of the base inscription reads AVE MATER CONDITORIS CELUM SCA[N]DENS LAUREATA PACEM PRESTA TUI FACTORIS SUPER CHOROS EXALTATA, "Hail Mother of the Creator, ascending to Heaven crowned with laurel, grant us the peace of him who made you, you who are exalted above the choirs [of angels]." This is the first verse of a hymn for Vespers on the Feast of the Assumption in the Gallican Breviary. The full hymn is in Clemens Blume, Die Hymnen des Thesaurus Hymnologicus (Leipzig, Reisland, 1908), 62. The front of the base is a Dormition image. On the left side of the base is a portrait of the donor and his wife with his name, Philip de Serium. I can find no place called "Serium." If it is a misspelling of "Sericum," it would mean Lorraine.

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