Christ Child Blessing, Shop of Rossellino

Exhibition Label: "Corpus," Apr-2012, Chassica Kirchhoff This endearing papier-mâché sculpture is one of many replicas of a marble Christ child carved by the sculptor Desiderio da Settignano for the church of San Lorenzo in Florence, Italy. Desiderio is known to have influenced his contemporaries, including the brothers Antonio and Bernardo Rossellino, whose workshop produced this figure. Papier-mâché sculpture was common in Renaissance Italy, where the material was often used to produce ephemeral artworks for special occasions, such as festivals, holy days, and triumphal entries. Although Jesus is depicted as a nude infant, he holds the cross, foreshadowing its role in his eventual death, and raises his right hand in a gesture of blessing. While this sculpture embraces Christian iconography that had been in use for centuries, it also demonstrates the dynamism and naturalism that had permeated Italian art by the mid-15th century. The figure’s proportions and features are strikingly realistic and connect this sculpture to the experiences of childhood and parenthood that were part of its viewers’ lives.