The Virgin and Child on a Crescent Moon from Deštná is a key painting of the region of Jindřichův Hradec, and it is related to a broader range of oeuvre of the same studio. The reverse of the panel is painted (vegetal decoration), so the question arises here if this may not originally have been the centre of a winged altarpiece. The painting skilfully combines the knowledge of new stylistic trends with deliberate citation of the elements of the Beautiful Style. The facial type of the Virgin and Child on a Crescent Moon approaches the group around the revered Madonna of Vyšší Brod (Hohenfurth), but the concept of the draperies and vegetation rather reveals the influence of the stimuli heralding the Late Gothic, as it is known from Viennese painting of the second quarter of the 15th century. The representative type of the crowned Virgin and Child on a Crescent Moon was created by a combination of several Marian themes. The Virgin Mary clothed in the sun, standing on a crescent, has its typological model in the Apocalyptic Woman, described in the text of John’s vision on Patmos Island (Rev. 1:1). The royal crown refers to the Virgin’s Assumption and Coronation. However, the Virgin and Child on a Crescent Moon also symbolized the Church, ruling the Earth and defeating paganism. Small flames against the background of a green bush in the painting indicate the Virgin Mary’s Immaculate Conception; they refer to Moses’s vision on Mount Horeb (Ex 3:2), ‘the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed’, and likewise to the Virgin Mary giving birth to a son, yet remaining a virgin.
