Viklau Madonna

[3][4] The rich gilding of the clothes and crown of Mary contrasts with the more subdued colours of the chair and the delicate features of her face.

[5] Apart from gold leaf, the crown and dress of the Madonna are also adorned with imitations of gemstones, made by a mixture of adhesive and lime.

[6] In 2017, a hole in the head of the Madonna was found to contain a small linen bag in which a piece of bone lay, implying a relic.

[7] The back of the statuette is flat, indicating that it originally was placed in and framed by a shallow cabinet – like all preserved Madonnas from this time from Sweden.

However, it has also been noted that the stylistic traits that these sculptures have in common can be observed over a large geographical area, and the link between Chartres and Viklau has in more recent years been played down.

[1][2] Art historian Lennart Karlsson [sv] argued that whether the sculpture should be classified as Romanesque or Gothic is an "academic" question.

Several theories have been put forward, as the Madonna from Viklau has attracted more attention than any other depiction of Mary from the Romanesque era in Sweden.

[1][2] Furthermore, it has been connected on both stylistic and technical grounds with a group of wooden sculptures from Gotland, and the rood crosses in the churches of Alskog, Hemse and Väte, among others, were very probably made in the same workshop.