Sacral sculpture from the collection of the Art Museum of Estonia

This highly expressive polychrome wooden sculpture was registered in the sculpture collection of the Art Museum of Estonia in 1949. The museum staff believe that it is a Baroque sculpture from post-Reformation times when the depiction of saints disappeared and only the embodiment of virtues – both Christian (faith, hope, love) and secular (wisdom, justice, determination and moderation) – remained. The expressiveness of a pregnant woman crying (or laughing?!) would suggest that it is a secular female figure depicting a universal vulnerability. To the eye of a modern viewer, it might as well be the Virgin Mary.