# Virgin and Child [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [LOMBARDO, Pietro]() - Date: 1451-1500 - Technique: Istrian stone, 104 x 156 cm ## Commentary 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. ## Related artworks - [Altar of San Giobbe]() - [Altar of the Badoer-Giustinian Chapel]() - [Doge Leonardo Loredano before the Virgin and Child]() - [Interior view of the dome \(detail\)]() - [Interior view of the dome]() - [Interior view]() - [Left wall of the Badoer-Giustinian Chapel]() - [Main door of the church \(detail\)]() - [Main door of the church]() - [Monument of Pietro Mocenigo \(detail\)]() - [Monument of Pietro Mocenigo \(detail\)]() - [Monument of Pietro Mocenigo \(detail\)]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()