Christ Child

In the Late Middle Ages, naked and freestanding figures of the Christ Child were extremely popular, especially in nunneries. At first glance these somewhat stocky little boys, who have their fair share of baby fat, are affecting, even cheerful. Frequently the Christ Child was shown holding an orb and raising a hand in blessing, or with some symbolic object suggestive of the Eucharist – in the case of the Berlin Jesus, however, these attributes have been lost. Sculptures of this kind were meant to underline the humanity of Christ, and thus the mystery of God incarnate. The freestanding posture, which is hardly appropriate for an infant of such an age, thereby is bound to the core message: a statue of an infant too small to stand causes confusion in the beholder, which serves to articulate once more the miracle of Christ’s incarnation in human form. The miniature format of the Berlin infant suggests that the work originally served as an individual’s object of private devotion.