Madonna of Kłodzko

Although Kłodzko was besieged and damaged during the Thirty Years' War, the altar was saved by the burgrave Johann Georg Semling and the Lutheran nobleman Adrian von Eckersdorf.

The motif of the Enthroned Madonna surrounded by angels, the composition of space united by the perspective-based receding of lines, the dark-skinned complexion, the unusual size of the child and the fondness for precious fabrics all have their origin in northern Italy.

The Madonna's crown of leaves and richly folded veil appear as archaic French models that emerged in Bohemian book painting as soon as the early 14th century.

The appearance of the Madonna and angels links it with the panel paintings The Adoration of the Magi, The Annunciation, The Resurrection and The Lamentation of the Vyšší Brod Altarpiece.

Compared with the Vyšší Brod panels, the Kłodzko Madonna shows several important innovations, especially in the perspectival projection of the throne, the accentuating of spatial depth through the colour-based graduating of areas, the modelling of the high relief of the drapery and in the overall human warmth of the presentation from which the entire typology of Bohemian loving Madonnas was developed right through to the early 15th century.