Fragment of a Face

This terracotta face fragment dates to the 14th or 15th century, a period when European sculptors rarely worked in fired clay. Terracotta sculpture was uncommon in the medieval West until the late 1300s, when advanced International Gothic workshops in Germany and Bohemia began experimenting with the medium. The International Gothic style favored elegant figures, flowing drapery, and refined naturalism, spreading across Europe through royal courts and aristocratic patronage.

This fragment likely came from a larger devotional sculpture of the Virgin Mary or a saint, originally displayed in a church or chapel. It may have been polychromed (painted in multiple colors) when complete. The Italian Renaissance later revived terracotta sculpture in the 15th century through artists like Luca della Robbia, who founded a family dynasty specializing in glazed and painted terracotta. The fragment is now at the Art Institute of Chicago, a reminder of how much medieval sculpture has been lost to time.