An unlikely location: this Riemenschneider piece is in the small but great Spencer Museum of Art in Lawrence, Kansas.


This statue may have been designed as a hausmadonna (House Madonna)—that is, a devotional sculpture installed on a non-religious building and endowed with protective or evil-averting powers. Originally shielded from the elements by a canopy, the sculptural work may also have been surrounded by a carved wreath of roses. The moon under the figure’s feet variously symbolized chastity and the Catholic dogma of Immaculate Conception; it also foretold the apocalyptic end of the world.