With her left hand Mary supports the naked Child, who is reaching towards a globe of the Earth, held by his mother in her right hand. Their gazes and attention are focused on the attribute; the grace of Mary’s face and the slight tilt of her head further suggest the internalisation of the symbolic meaning of the attribute.
The Mother of God is dressed in a blue tunic, belted under her breasts, which falls in a cascade of radiating folds. In contrast to the tunic, which is subject to gravity, the drapery of the cloak is executed in illogical folds, flirting with the aestheticisation of the troughfold style. Of particular interest is the artfully rendered, shell-shaped ending of the off-white drapery with red and black stripes, which falls over Mary’s right hand, combining elements of the Southern Renaissance and the mannerist Danube School.
The Trboje Virgin and Child represents the high point of a group of sculptures with similar formal characteristics, especially in the modelling of facial types (bulging eyes, unflattering noses, fleshy lips) and the illogical arrangements of drapery in the troughfold style. The works of the master, who has been named after his sculpture from Trboje and is thought to have had a workshop in Ljubljana, can be found in several locations in Upper Carniola (Bistrica near Tržič, Bled, Gosteče, Jesenice, Srednja vas near Šenčur, Suha near Predoslje, Zakal near Kamnik), on the southern edge of the Ljubljana Marshes (Matena near Ig, Visoko below Kurešček), and in Goriška Brda (Kojsko).
Provenance:
Trboje near Kranj