Michelangelo’s Madonna of Bruges
The Madonna of Bruges is a marble statue by Michelangelo that was carved between 1501 and 1504. There are a number of things that make the statue very unique, the first of which is that it is the only statue by Michelangelo to leave Italy during his lifetime. It was purchased by Giovanni and Alessandro Moscheroni, two traders who took the statue to Bruges, Belgium which was one of the largest commercial cities in Europe at the time.
The other thing that sets the statue apart is the fact that it takes a very different approach to the subject of Mary and Jesus. Instead of cradling the baby Jesus, he stands on his own with Mary just slightly holding him with her left hand. Mary is also not looking down at the boy Jesus, but she rather looks away from him. Some believe that the statue was made as part of an altarpiece where it would have stood at 8 feet tall and therefore Mary would have been looking down at the people standing by the altar.
The sculpture remained in Belgium until 1794, when French Revolutionaries conquered the region. The people of Bruges were ordered to ship the statue and a number of other works of art to Paris where it remained until Napoleon’s defeat in 1815. The statue was taken again in 1944 as the Nazis retreated out of Belgium. They placed the priceless sculpture in-between mattresses and had it smuggled out of the country in a Red Cross truck.
The Monuments Men arrived a few days later to find that the statue had been taken. They had been tasked not only with recovering lost art, but protecting what art they could and they had not expected the Madonna to disappear with the retreat. The Madonna was among the art that was recovered from the Altaussee salt mine and it now sits in the Church of Our Lady in Bruges.