Virgin and Child, ca. 1480

  • Michel Erhart, German, ca. 1440-after 1522

Linden wood with traces of polychromy and gesso

  • Overall: 64 × 17 1/2 × 13 inches (162.6 × 44.5 × 33 cm)

Gift of Ralph Harman Booth

22.3

On View

  • European: Medieval and Renaissance, Level 2, West

Department

European Sculpture and Dec Arts

The workshop of Michel Erhart was one of the most successful in Ulm, a prolific center of wood sculpture during the late Gothic period. This imposing life-size Virgin, originally polychromed and gilded, would have been the central figure in a large altarpiece. Here, Mary holds an energetic child, who interacts with the viewer rather than with his mother. The crescent moon beneath the Virgin’s feet is an allusion to the biblical description of the Apocalyptic Woman (Rev. 12:1–5), who appears clothed in the sun with the moon at her feet.

Benedictine Abbey (Zwiefalten, Germany)

Art market (Ochsenhausen, Germany)

Krupp collection (Essen, Germany)

dealers, J. and S. Goldschmidt (Frankfurt, Germany)

until 1922, Ralph H. Booth (Grosse Pointe, Michigan, USA)

1922-present, gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

T. Demmler, "German Gothic Sculptures in the Ralph N. [sic] Booth Collection, Detroit," trans. C.B. Ely. Art in America 11, 4 (1923): pp. 164-70 ( fig. 5 ill.). Valentiner, Wilhelm R. "New Period Rooms." Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts 4, no. 4 (January 1923): pp. 26–32, 29. P[oland], R[eginald]. "Gifts From Ralph H. Booth." Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts 6, no. 8 (1925): p. 91 (ill.). Otto, Gertrud. Die Ulmer Plastik der Spätgotik. Reutlingen, 1927, p. 92, fig. 96 (ill.). [as by Gregor Erhart] E. P. Richardson. "A Madonna Statue by Jorg Syrlin The Younger." Bulletin of the DIA 15, 4 (1936): p. 51. J. Hecht. "Gregor Erharts Madonnen." Pantheon 21 (1938): pp. 20-23. G. Otto. Gregor Erhart. Berlin, 1943, pp. 74-75. W. R. Valentiner. "Late Gothic Sculpture in Detroit." Art Quarterly 6, 4 (Autumn 1943), p. 304-305, (fig. 24 ill.). The Detroit Institute of Arts. Paintings and Sculptures Illustrated: A Companion to the Catalogue, 3rd ed. (1943), p. 122 (ill.). I. Himmelheber. "Ein Ulmer Bildschnitzer der Spätgotik," Jahrbuch der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen in Baden-Württemberg 6, 3 (1969): p. 40-42,(ill.). A. Miller. Allgäuer Bildschnitzer der Spätgotik. (1969), pp. 22, 50. Selected Renaissance Works of Art from the Permanent Collection. Exh. cat. Detroit Institute of Arts. 1982, p. 4. P. Barnet. "Late Gothic Wood Sculptures from Ulm," Bulletin of the DIA 64, 4 (1989): pp. 28-39. A. Miller, "Die Kunstgeschichte des Klosters Ochsenhausen im Mittelalter und in der Renaissance." Ochsenhausen, Von der Benediktinerabtei zur oberschwäbischen Landstadt, (1995): pp. 219-220, 242 (fig. 75 (ill.). D. Gillerman. Gothic Sculpture in America, vol. II. The Museums of the Midwest, 116(2001): pp. 152-154, (ill.).

Circle of Michel Erhart, Virgin and Child, ca. 1480, linden wood with traces of polychromy and gesso. Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of Ralph Harman Booth, 22.3.