Lot 30

PASSAU-MADONNA

The Baroque carving of the Virgin Mary Help of Christians, also known as the Passau Virgin, is probably from Tyrol and is housed in a richly carved wooden box. The sculpture is inspired both in composition and colour by the polychrome painting of Our Lady of Passau, painted in 1537 by Lucas Cranach Sr. (1472-1553). Iconographically, it is a variant of Eleusis - tenderly loving. The main fame of the painting came in 1683. Emperor Leopold I, who was staying in Passau at the time of the siege of Vienna by the Turks, turned to the Virgin Mary in his distress to ask for help in liberating the besieged capital, which was about to fall. When the Turks were then gloriously defeated at Vienna, the fame of the Passau image of Our Lady of Help spread overnight, and chapels and churches in her honour began to spring up in all the countries of the empire, from Hungary to Alsace, not excluding the Bohemian lands. The Madonna is housed in a cut glass-protected box, with an opening door at the back and a hook for hanging, the interior covered with purple velvet.