Lancashire Madonna - Manchestr, UK
Posted by: 
dtrebilc
N 53° 29.111 W 002° 14.623
30U E 550183 N 5926512
This gilded statue is in a niche on the outside wall of the lady chapel of Manchester Cathedral.
Waymark Code: WMZKA4
Location: North West England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 11/23/2018
Views: 0
The main body of the Cathedral dates from the 15th cenrtury, but Manchester expanded rapidly during the industrial revolution.
It was made a cathedral in 1847 and was extensively refaced, restored and extended in the Victorian period.
During World War II the cathedral was bombed and the lady chapel badly damaged. Reconstruction of the chapel was completed in 1958 and the statue installed in the niche at Easter.
Sculpted by Sir Charles Wheeler, it is a Madonna and Child statue in a contemporary rather than traditional style. It shows the infant Christ in the arms of the Virgin Mary who is wearing a typical Lancashire mill worker's shawl as a reminder of Manchester's textile heritage. Because of the style of dress it became known as the Lancashire Madonna.
This Wikipedia article states “Images of the Madonna and the Madonna and Child or Virgin and Child are pictorial or sculptured representations of Mary, Mother of Jesus, either alone, or more frequently, with the infant Jesus. These images are central icons of Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox Christianity where Mary remains a central artistic topic. No image (in either the Western or the Eastern Church) permeates Christian art as the image of Madonna and Child.
While Mary, the Mother of Jesus, may be referred to as "the Madonna" in other contexts, in art the term is applied specifically to an artwork in which Mary, with or without the infant Jesus, is the focus, and central figure of the picture. Mary and the infant Jesus may be surrounded by adoring angels or worshipping saints. Images that have a narrative content, including those of the many scenes which make up the Life of the Virgin, are not correctly referred to as "Madonnas" but are given a title that reflects the scene such as the Annunciation to Mary.”