This small and delicate alabaster piece intended for worship must be classified among the Italian-inspired models carried out by Spanish Renaissance sculptors in the cities of Burgos, Valladolid and Toledo in the first half of the 16th century. In fact, this piece reminds of the Florentine Quattrocento prototypes and the models by Donatello o Mino da Fiesole and, above all, to those by the Della Robbia family (Lucca, Andrea, Giovanni, etc.) that become very popular in mid-15th century. From this Virgin and Child prototype a great number of pieces in enameled terracotta were created, also intended for worship and with slight variations mainly related to the different positions and attitude of the child and how the Virgin holds him.
The piece of work we are analyzing now undoubtedly show high-quality skills a careful technical performance in the carving of the stone and also a search for refinement and Italian-style artistic beauty. The result is a serene, elegant and balanced composition: The winding carving gives movement and depth by using relief gradation and there is also the suggestive little angel standing out under the Virgin's mantle on the lower part of the piece. Like all the works of this type, it shows an intimate character linked to its use for private worship in small prayer rooms where delicacy, beauty, the feeling of sleepless intimacy and the deep expression of mother-soon love are the main features.
Sculptor Gregorio Bigarny, also known as Gregorio Pardo since he took her mother's last name (she belonged to an aristocrat family of Burgos), was the son of the Flemish sculptor Felipe Bigarny.