Child Jesus blessing - Mechelen Circa 1500

Presented as the Salvator Mundi (Savior of the world), the dual nature of Christ, divine and human, is emphasized by two aspects: his nudity and the globe associated with the gesture of blessing.
Statuettes depicting the Infant Jesus as Salvator Mundi were common around 1500. Linked to new, more private, more incarnate forms of devotion, these statuettes were the object of special manipulations during prayers, and could be dressed, etc.
Nuns could dress it, lay it down, talk to it. In 1344, a letter from the Dominican nun Margaretha Ebner describes this type of practice: 'The little Jesus cries and prevents her from sleeping, demanding that she take him against her in bed. She agrees, but asks for a kiss to make up for her caprice, and he complies, taking her in his arms. Another time, the Child demands to be breastfed. She holds him close and feels the sensation of human contact on her bare breast.
Malinese statuettes are adapted for this double function. From the end of the 15th century onwards, figures of the Infant Jesus were no longer reserved for the religious sphere, and found their way into the home/private sphere, with the emergence of new customs (cradling the baby Jesus at Christmas).
Representation of a young naked child standing on a pedestal, accompanied by a trousseau of small clothes, rarely preserved. The cushion-shaped plinth is less common than the hexagonal plinth, but was also often used.
The nude Infant Jesus type accounts for only 10% of Malines' 16th-century production, which was mainly made up of dolls.
The book “Made in Malines” indicates that “the 35 to 37 cm height is dominant until the middle of production”.

This type of wooden statuette is typical of Malines production, following in the footsteps of 15th-century Brussels production. Lacquered polychromy is characteristic of this type of production.