Madonna from Roudnice

The Madonna of Roudnice - crowned Virgin Mary with Christ is the original type of a Marian image constituting in Bohemia in the third quarter of the 14th century together with the second type of the uncrowned Madonna of St Vitus. The popularity of both of these Marian images prove the copies favored throughout the whole 15th century. The panel of Roudnice was originally a reliquary panel, because the agrapha on the Mary’s overcoat was replaced by a reliquary shrine with the relic of the Mary’s overcoat drenched with Christ’s blood. In all probability the Prague archbishop Jan of Jenštejn was a great admirer of this painting.