This is a near life-size wooden sculpture of the birth of the Virgin Mary with her mother Saint Anne. It comes from a church called Ebern in southern Germany and dates to around 1480. The sweetness of this pair really stands out, especially Anne’s exhausted but happy expression as she rests after giving birth, one hand lovingly extended toward her newborn infant. The paint still retains details like the plaid of Anne’s pillow and the metallic brocade pattern on her dress, and burn marks from candles suggest that the statue was prayed over by devout Christians. From the Cloisters at the New York Metropolitan Museum.
