Madonna of Korppoo

This statue, known as the Madonna of Korppoo, has a very similar sister statue in Sweden. The other statue, the Viklau Madonna, had a relic inside Mary’s head, and so the X-ray imaging of the Korppoo statue was also of special interest. The cavity inside Mary’s head and the long pin that blocks it are easily discernible in the X-ray, but the small space under the pin seems to be empty.

However, the remains of paint and gold plating surfaces can be discerned in the X-ray image of the statue. Like most medieval statues, all the saints in the exhibition were originally painted. There were also several priming layers under the paint, which were used to smoothen the wooden surface and create more precise shapes and decorative motifs. In the Korppoo statue, the surface treatment has been preserved best in the area of the face, hair and chest (the paint surface of the face is also visible at the head cavity, which may make it more difficult to detect). There are empty holes in Mary’s forearms and lap, where her lost hands and child used to be attached with wooden pins. The separate crown on her head has not been preserved either.