Figures from a Retable of the Virgin and Child, with Saint Catherine of Alexandria, Saint Apollonia, Saint Margaret of Antioch, and (possibly) Saint Mary Kleophas

English 15th Century

National Gallery of Art

This freestanding sculpture consists of a central panel with two narrower panels on hinges that could close like shutters. The central panel shows a crowned woman holding a baby, Mary and Jesus, and each side panel holds two people, one stacked over the other and about half the scale of Mary. All five people are shown under canopies carved with triangular moldings carved with filigree-like tracery. The panels appear to be wood, and the people are carved from white alabaster. The faces are all oval with large eyes, straight noses, and small mouths. They all wear robes, dresses, or habits that fall in thick folds to the small bases on which they stand. Mary has long, wavy hair, and she holds a sprig of roses in her left hand, to our right. Resembling a miniature man, Jesus sits upright in her other hand, his hands clasped in his lap and his knees together. He appears to wear a collared vestment, and his hair is either damaged or is curly only on each side of his narrow face. To the left, the top woman wears a crown over long wavy hair. She props the end of a chest-high sword with one hand and holds a small wheel with the other. Below her, a woman wears a cloth covering over her head and a rosary hangs from her waist. She holds a what might be small vessel and a green object, perhaps a book. In the top right, the woman also has wavy hair under a crown, and she holds a book and a tall cross. The fifth woman, in the lower right, holds two objects that are difficult to make out, perhaps an incense burner or jar and a short staff. Traces of red, green, black, and other colored paint are especially prominent on the objects the women hold and the backgrounds.