This is an ivory statuette made in about 1270-1300, probably in Spain, perhaps Burgos or León. This statuette represents the Virgin, seated, holding a book in her right hand, her left arm supporting the Child who stands upon her left knee. The child holds an apple in his left hand.
It is entirely likely that French ivory Virgin and Child sculptures had made their way to Northern Spain in the decades after 1240, acting as models for local craftsmen; the impact of the Amiens workshop on stone sculptors at Burgos in these tears is well known, and this French influence continued throughout the thirteenth century.
Three dimensional images of the Virgin and Child were ubiquitous from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries, produced in a wide range of materials and sizes and testifying the overwhelming devotion to th Virgin. Together with the Crucifixion, statues and statuettes of the Virgin and Child were the pricipal objects of devotion in the Christian Church, and vast numbers were made for ecclesisastical, monastic and private worship.