Vatican Museums

By the sculptor Jacob Epstein, who was born in New York but lived and worked in London, this is a 1952 preparatory work for the sculpture for Cavendish Square in London. A monumental work for which the artist drew inspiration from Byzantine depictions of the Virgin Mary, it recalls the iconography of the Platytera Madonna – “wider than the heavens” – that depicts the Virgin in prayer with the child before her. The Virgin, to whom Epstein gave the features of his wife Kathleen, subsequently abandoned in the final version, has her arms hanging by her sides and the palms of her hands open, appearing to create a protective involucrum for the body of the Child who outstretches His arms to create a cross. It appears, to the faithful who draw close to them, as if the figures are suspended in space, thus creating an atmosphere of intense spirituality.