Virgin and Child on the Crescent Moon

between 1490 and 1500

Tilman Riemenschneider German, 1460-1531

On View

European: Medieval and Renaissance, Level 2, West Wing

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Catalogue Raisonné

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About the Artwork

Riemenschneider was the head of a large and prolific workshop in Würzburg in Franconia. While artists elsewhere in northern Europe preferred to use oak and walnut, Riemenschneider, Erhart, and others in south Germany chose the fine, even grain of lindenwood. This sculpture was probably originally polychromed and gilded, but during the 1490s Riemenschneider experimented with monochromatic, unpainted lindenwood, creating an effect much like this Madonna. The way the Virgin grasps the child’s foot is an unusual detail found on several sculptures from Riemenschneider’s workshop. There is evidence that a crown was originally attached to her head.

Title Virgin and Child on the Crescent Moon

Artwork Date between 1490 and 1500

Artist Tilman Riemenschneider

Life Dates 1460-1531

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. German

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. Unknown

Medium Lindenwood

Dimensions Overall: 56 × 16 3/8 × 10 3/4 inches (142.2 × 41.6 × 27.3 cm)

Classification Sculpture

Department European Sculpture and Dec Arts

Credit Gift of Mrs. Ralph Harman Booth in memory of her husband

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 43.2

Markings

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Provenance

Rosenbaum Collection (Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany)

by 1926, Ralph Harman Booth (Grosse Pointe, Michigan, USA)

bequeathed to Mrs. Ralph Harman Booth (Grosse Pointe, Michigan, USA)

1943-present, gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

For more information on provenance and its important function in the museum, please visit:

Provenance page

Exhibition History

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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

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Published References

Catalogue of a Loan Exhibition from Detroit Private Collections. Detroit, 1926, cat. no. 85.

Valentiner, W.R. "Late Gothic Sculpture in Detroit." Art Quarterly 6, no. 4 (1943): p. 304; p. 305 (ill.).

Bulletin of the DIA 23, no. 3 (1943): p. 24.

Sculptures of Tilmann Riemenschneider. Exh. cat., North Carolina Museum of Art. Raleigh, 1962, no. 7, p. 38; p. 39 (ill.).

Bier, J. Tilmann Riemenschneider, His Life and Work. Lexington, 1982, pp. 37, 120.

Gillerman, D., ed. Gothic Sculpture in America. Vol. I, The New England Museums. New York, 1989, cat. no. 56, p. 78.

Gillerman, D. Gothic Sculpture in America. Vol. II, The Museums of the Midwest. Turnhout, 2001, pp. 157-158; p. 157, no. 119 (ill.).

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Catalogue Raisoneé

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Credit Line for Reproduction

Tilman Riemenschneider, Virgin and Child on the Crescent Moon, between 1490 and 1500, lindenwood. Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of Mrs. Ralph Harman Booth in memory of her husband, 43.2.