Virgin Mary and Child

Bourdelle began his career as an assistant to Auguste Rodin, and was influenced by the master, but established his own unique style and became a leading modern sculptor. This is among several variations created for a monumental six-meter statue commissioned in 1919 by Léon Vogt, an industrialist from Niederbruck in Alsace, to commemorate his factory and his village’s surviving World War I. also known as The Madonna of Alsace or, most commonly, Virgin of the Offering, it depicts the Virgin Mary holding the Christ child up to the height of her shoulders. The child’s outstretched arms symbolically foreshadow the cross he will eventually bear. The Madonna’s downward gaze is filled with compassion. (M.N.)