Golden Madonna of Essen

The Golden Madonna of Essen is a sculpture of the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus. It is a wooden core covered with sheets of thin gold leaf. The piece is part of the treasury of Essen Cathedral, formerly the church of Essen Abbey, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, and is kept on display at the cathedral.

Dated around the year 980, it is both the oldest known sculpture of the Madonna and the oldest free-standing medieval sculpture north of the Alps, and is also one of the few major works of art to survive from Ottonian times. To this day it remains an object of veneration and symbol of identity for the population of the Ruhr Area. It is the only full-length survival from what appears to have been a common form of statue among the wealthiest churches and abbeys of 10th and 11th century Northern Europe; some of these were life-size, especially figures of the Crucifixion.

The statue is dated around the year 980 and was thus created during the tenure of Mathilde, a granddaughter of Emperor Otto I, as abbess of Essen Abbey. Under her reign and those of her successors Sophia of Gandersheim (1012–1039) and Theophanu (1039–1058), the abbey acquired what is today considered the most precious of the works of art of the Essen treasury. The creator of the sculpture is unknown, but it is generally presumed to have been crafted in either Cologne or Hildesheim. Hildesheim is home to a Madonna slightly younger than the one in Essen, while Cologne seems more likely as the home of the artist since the folds in the Madonna’s gown resemble those of the Cross of Otto and Mathilde dated 982 which is also part of the Essen treasury but was doubtless created by a Cologne goldsmith as it shares many features with the Gero crucifix of Cologne Cathedral.

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