Throne of Wisdom

The wooden statue of the Mother and Child enthroned, known as sedes sapientiae, the Seat or Throne of Wisdom, reached the brilliant culmination of its development as a genre of religious sculpture in the twelfth century. As a visible expression of the mystery of Incarnation, its iconography dated back to the early church. Translated by the Romanesque sculptor into a fully plastic, freestanding form, its style conveys convincingly the medieval vision of humanity and divinity interfused. The recen