LOMBARDO, Pietro
(b. ca. 1435, Carona, d. 1515, Venezia)

Virgin and Child

1480-1500
Istrian stone, 104 x 156 cm
Victoria and Albert Museum, London

This lunette, carved for an unidentified convent, depicts two nuns. The one kneeling on the Virgin's right holds a crosier, or staff, which suggests that she is the abbess. The sculpture signified that the building belonged to a monastic order. The two kneeling nuns are the donors. It was common practice for people to pay for objects or decoration in a church, partly to show their piety but also to reduce their time in Purgatory. The shape and imagery of this relief, and the presence of the nuns, suggests that it comes from an external doorway in a convent church.