This wooden sculpture of the Virgin and Child, dating to the fourteenth century (most probably the mid to late 1300s, though sometimes described as early fifteenth century), is of Continental—likely French—origin. It entered the collection of Salisbury Cathedral in 1986, having been donated by Mrs Margaret Berry, who acquired the work at auction.

The Virgin is shown crowned and frontal, holding the Christ Child firmly in her arms. Her elongated face, calm expression, and hieratic stillness contrast with the more compact, childlike proportions of the infant Christ, whose pose and modelling reflect late medieval conventions rather than naturalistic observation. The overall composition aligns with the “Throne of Wisdom” (Sedes Sapientiae) type, in which Mary is presented as the living seat of divine wisdom, enthroned through posture rather than architectural setting.

Carved from dark hardwood—commonly described as oak or a similar timber—the figure preserves traces of original polychromy, now heavily worn. Losses to the crown, surface abrasion, cracking of the wood, and extensive weathering testify both to the sculpture’s age and to the typical survival conditions of medieval devotional carvings, many of which suffered damage through iconoclasm, neglect, or repeated handling.

Stylistically, the sculpture reflects late medieval French devotional practice, where emphasis is placed on solemnity, frontal presence, and symbolic clarity rather than intimacy between mother and child. Although not part of the cathedral’s original medieval furnishing, the figure provides a valuable example of Continental Marian imagery of the later Middle Ages, now preserved within the cathedral’s wider sculptural collection.