Found on [Artifact Guesser](https://artifactguesser.com), an Open Artifact Database with a Time/Location Guessing Game build on top for fun and discovery.
Description:
Niclaus Gerhaert, a seminal artist of the generation preceding Albrecht Dürer’s, was presumably born in Leiden and was active in Strasbourg and Vienna, as well as in several cities between them. Three of his signed works are known and only four others, including this sculpture, have been seriously ascribed to him.
The statuette expresses a combined sense of drama, monumentality, and elegance through the extraordinarily accomplished carving of the fine-grained wood. The rhythm and balance of the complex drapery folds are set off by fine linear detail and textural contrasts. Among the naturalistic details that subtly enhance the forms is the delicate manner in which the Virgin’s fingertips press into the chubby flesh of the Child. Intended as an object of private devotion, and part of a long tradition in the use of boxwood for this purpose, it may well have been commissioned by a member of the imperial court in Vienna. The dark base, with a fictive Dürer monogram and date on the back, is of later date. Both arms of the Child and the section of drapery held in his left hand are replacements.
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Found on [Artifact Guesser](https://artifactguesser.com), an Open Artifact Database with a Time/Location Guessing Game build on top for fun and discovery.
Description:
Niclaus Gerhaert, a seminal artist of the generation preceding Albrecht Dürer’s, was presumably born in Leiden and was active in Strasbourg and Vienna, as well as in several cities between them. Three of his signed works are known and only four others, including this sculpture, have been seriously ascribed to him.
The statuette expresses a combined sense of drama, monumentality, and elegance through the extraordinarily accomplished carving of the fine-grained wood. The rhythm and balance of the complex drapery folds are set off by fine linear detail and textural contrasts. Among the naturalistic details that subtly enhance the forms is the delicate manner in which the Virgin’s fingertips press into the chubby flesh of the Child. Intended as an object of private devotion, and part of a long tradition in the use of boxwood for this purpose, it may well have been commissioned by a member of the imperial court in Vienna. The dark base, with a fictive Dürer monogram and date on the back, is of later date. Both arms of the Child and the section of drapery held in his left hand are replacements.
More info, images, a map of that time period, and similar artifacts [here](https://artifactguesser.com/artifacts/664bf22ab1ae9d19c9bc8d6f).
Visit the [Original MET Source](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/466287) to see whether its on display, for their history timeline and further essays/resouces on this type of object.
This baby Jesus has a lot of attitude.
What I love be the most is Mary’s realistic posture, the hip jutted out to hold up the baby and the leaning backwards to maintain balance.