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The Golden Madonna of Essen is a sculpture with a wooden core covered all over with sheets of thin...

The Golden Madonna of Essen is a sculpture with a wooden core covered all over with sheets of thin gold leaf of the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus. It is part of the treasury of Essen Cathedral, formerly the church of Essen Abbey, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, and kept on display at the cathedral. Dated around the year 980, it is both the oldest known sculpture of the Madonna and the oldest free-standing sculpture north of the Alps, and one of the few major works of art to survive from Ottonian times. To this day it remains an object of veneration and symbol of identity for the population of the Ruhr Area. It is the only full-length survival from what appears to have been a common form of statue among the wealthiest churches and abbeys of 10th and 11th century Northern Europe; some of these were life-size, especially figures of the Crucifixion. The statue is dated around the year 980 and was thus created during the tenure of Mathilda II (971–1011), a granddaughter of Emperor Otto I, as abbess of Essen Abbey. Under her reign and those of her successors Sophia of Gandersheim (1012–1039) and Theophanu (1039–1058), the abbey acquired what is today considered the most precious