New Masterpiece at M: Maria Lactans

Mother and child

"The Virgin Lactans, or Virgo Lactans, is a theme that is often found in Christian art: the Virgin breastfeeding the Christ Child. This statue dates back to the early 13th century, and is believed to be the work of sculptor Brioloto de Balneo from Verona. It is carved in marmo rosso di Verona, a local stone."

Blue and red

"It is a truly exceptional piece. Because it is so old, of course, but also because of its artistic qualities, and because few comparable pieces have survived. It was bought by Adolphe Stoclet in 1923, a railway entrepreneur and financier with a very eclectic art collection. You may know him from the Stoclet house in Brussels. Last year, the Flemish Community's Council of Masterpieces bought the statue from its then owners. We applied to look after it and we end up getting it on long-term loan." 

"We think that M is the most suitable institution for the work, as we have built up extensive expertise in medieval sculpture. We ourselves buy a relatively large number of sculptures from that period, as we want to enrich and refine our collection constantly. But this piece was really out of our reach. Fortunately, there is the Council of Masterpieces: one of their tasks is to keep key pieces of our heritage in Flanders." 

"We are also going to try to find out more about this piece, because that is part of our job as a museum. We know, for example, that it used to be painted, because there are still some remnants of colour on the surface. It is mainly blue and red, which is in line with medieval conventions: Mary usually wore a blue robe. The red can also be seen on her robe and the cloth lying on the chair. We are going to try and find out, and then we want to make a reconstruction of what the statue originally looked like."

Intimacy

"We have a masterpiece, so we want to show it to the people as soon as possible and then a great opportunity came along. M has a focus room, where we explain the highlights of the collection. For the past two years, Rogier van der Weyden's 'Triptych of the Seven Sacraments' has been hanging there, but that work has now returned to the KMSKA. Instead, we will now focus on the Maria Lactans."

"The nurturing virgin is an important concept in Catholicism. Jesus is God and man at the same time, and it is Mary who makes him human through her mother's milk. In the earliest depictions of the Virgo Lactans, for example in Byzantine miniatures, you see this dogmatism. A point of faith is explained, there is no relationship to be seen between mother and child. With our Maria Lactans, there is more intimacy and warmth. This is typical of the late Middle Ages, when the focus shifted to the human. She still looks relatively stern, but the baby is reaching for her clothes and Mary is helping her child feed. It really is one of those images on the intersection in terms of time and style."

Drunk on milk

"M is a transhistorical museum. This includes showing works from different periods together. That is why we will add two more thematically related collection pieces to the Maria Lactans. The first is a painting by Joos van Cleve from the early 16th century. That seems old, but it is 300 years younger than the statue. You can see that, it is closer to our current views on breastfeeding and the loving mother-child relationship. The child has just drunk and contently falls asleep on its mother's breast. Drunk on milk, as it were. In itself, it is the same image, depicting the same dogma - Mary makes Jesus human through her mother's milk - but the effect is completely different."

"Then we skip another nearly four hundred years, to the Fertility' by Constantin Meunier, a picture from the end of the 19th century. Meunier is one of the most important sculptors in our history. We know that he was well-acquainted with medieval traditions and referred to them. The image is an echo of the Virgo Lactans, but at the same time very different. There is no longer anything divine about it: a working woman is feeding her child, end of. Together, these works form a beautiful ensemble: they say something about religion, changing views, the bond between mother and child... The works will remain in the focus room until 2024. Time enough to go and discover them!"