When Michelangelo carved his first Pieta he did not look back to his predecessors for the concept, nor did he when he created the Madonna and Child. From his great imagination and spirituality he produced an art work deeply moving, profound and strikingly original.

Two years after finishing The Pieta for St. Peter's and while working on the gigantic David, he carved this marble Madonna and Child for a wealthy merchant of the Flemish city of Bruges. He was not yet thirty years old. This is not the sweet smiling Madonna so popular with his predecessors. Rigid and straight-forward, her face framed with a head-scarf similar to that of the Pieta, she seems to look inwardly, stoically ready to accept the fate which she appears to know has already been prescribed for her son. Also with complete unconventionality, the child is placed not on her knees but between them, his soft flesh contrasted with the enfolding robe. He seems sweet, gentle and playful but there is also a seriousness which had not before been depicted in this tiny son of God. He still clasps his mother's hand but with his weight partially supported by the left leg he seems ready to step down into the awaiting world in order to play the great role for which he was destined.