Castilian school of the XV century. Virgin of the Milk. Carved and polychrome wood sculpture. The Virgin is ...

Castilian school of the XV century. Virgin of the Milk. Carved and polychrome wood sculpture. The Virgin is represented standing, crowned, wearing a tunic and cloak, holding the Child with both arms, he puts his hand on his mother's breast, which is conceived with a more theological than physical sense, symbolizing his divine motherhood of implicitly, while holding the orb with the other. 67 x 19 x 20 cm. The Virgin of the Milk is an invocation and an iconography of the Virgin Mary, in which she is represented in the act of breastfeeding the Child Jesus. It is considered that this invocation may be a syncretism of the mother-goddesses, in particular of the goddess Isis nursing Horus, and probably the first images appeared in Coptic art. This iconographic model spread through Italy to the rest of Europe, enjoying great notoriety in the different Hispanic kingdoms in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries –especially in the territories of the Crown of Aragon–, although examples were dated back to the thirteenth century. significant such as the miniature that illustrates the charter of the foundation of the Brotherhood of the Virgin Mary and Saint Dominic in Tárrega (Lérida), dated 1269 (Barcelona, ​​Archive of the Crown of Aragon) and the front of Betesa (Barcelona, ​​National Museum of Art of Catalonia). Mary may appear seated on the ground or on a throne, in a composition formed solely by the divine couple or accompanied by saints and angels in an attitude of worship or playing music. This iconography was demanded to such an extent that it was incorporated as a central element of evangelical scenes such as the Flight into Egypt or compositions that include the Holy Family or the Virgin with saints. Some art critics maintain that its representation was limited from the Council of Trent (1545-1563) for reasons of modesty but especially in Spain (also in Portugal and Latin America), the Virgin of the milk enjoyed great popularity until at least less late seventeenth century.