Bulletin du Musée National de Varsovie (41.2000)

Ali the examples of the Toruń group are characterised by diagonal
placement of Infant Jesus in relation to Mother’s torso, the Child’s seated
position, crossed legs reaching the upper dished fold and the Virgin’s hand
holding his leg bent in the knee. The draperies pattern, common to all
sculptures, is converted in the Madonna of Wrocław. Only in the Madonna
of Toruń we encounter a “three hands” motif - the Virgin’s hand and the
Child’s hands, all joining at the apple. The figures from Wrocław and Sternberk
have common motifs with the one from Krumlov: in all three sculptures the
Child’s position is similar. In the Sternberk sculpture the Child is larger,
held higher, as in the Krumlov one, and his right hand gesture is similar (left
hand from Krumlov was not preserved). Simultaneously, the Child’s hands
gesture and the “springing” effect of the Child placed morę frontally than
in the Madonna of Toruń, clearly brings the Sternberk sculpture closer to
that of Toruń. The motif of Child grasping his Mother’s robes used in the
latter sculpture is also known from other examples related to the Madonna
of Krumlou (Madonna of Hallstatt and Madonna of Bad Aussee) and, judging
from the incline of the unpresereved left hand, it was also present in the
Madonna of Krumlou.

In both groups, Bohemian and Toruń one, the major role is played by motifs
used earlier, sometimes very traditional ones, transformed and developed
according to the reąuirements of the new style. These motifs comprise the
contrapposto rule, symmetrical and unsymmetrical drapery pattern which,
going back to the cathedral sculpture tradition, was in “constant use” in
stone and wooden sculpture of the 14rh century. The motif of crossed legs of
the Child is of similar origin (from Vierge Doree to Madonnas on Lion). The
Virgin’s hand supporting the leg of the Child with her tips only, in such a way
that the thumb running from the knee forms a triangle with the hand’s edge
and linę of the leg, may be called a specifically “Toruń” gesture. The “three
hands” motif, beautifully interpreted by the Master of the Madonna of Toruń,
had been previously limited to the Silesian-Prussian circle of Madonnas on
Lion.8 Balancing the figurę on the resting leg’s side, contrary to the tradition
of Gothic sculpture and the rules of statics, is fully original, just like the
gathering of the dished folds of the mantle. The Madonna of Wrocław still
holds the Child above the folds Cascade, like the 13th-14th century figures with
unsymmetrical drapery pattern. This would make the Wrocław sculpture
a compromise between innovativeness and tradition.

Grossmann, “Salzburgs Anteil an den ‘Schonen Madonnen”’, in Ausstellung..., op. cit. p. 28;
idem, “Die Breslauer ‘Schone Madonna’ und ihr Typus in Westdeutschland”, Stadels Jahrbuch,
NF, 6, 1977, pp. 236-238; K.H. Clasen, Der Meister der Schonen Madonnen, Berlin-New York
1974, pp. 27-30, 34-37, 47-50, 60-62; Schmidt, op. cit., pp. 75-84; the study was summed
up by Z. Kruszelnicki, ‘“Piękne Madonny’ - problem otwarty”, Teka Komisji Historii Sztuki,
VIII, 1992, pp. 31-105 and L. Kalinowski, “Sztuka około roku 1400”, in Sztuka około roku
1400. Materiały Sesji Stowarzyszenia Historyków Sztuki, vol. I, Warsaw 1996, pp. 15-24.

8 For example the Łuczyna (Luzine) Triptych from ca. 1370, Warsaw, Muzeum Narodowe,
inv. no. Sr. 2; the altar of the church in Lichnowe (Gross-Lichtenau), ca. 1370.

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