Madonna of the Wheat

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Artist: Master of Sterzing (c 1450) Innsbruck, Austria

This image represents the Blessed Virgin as fertile soil and untilled field of God called to bear fruit, symbol for her virginal motherhood of God's Son. It makes reference to the Eucharist: Mary can be seen as the tabernacle of God's Eucharistic presence. Another source may be the custom to shower newlyweds with ears, an expression of wishes for marital fertility. Another socio-cultural source for this rare iconographical motif may be found in Demeter whose attribute was the blade of wheat, symbol of fertility. Some authors have established a symbolic connection between Bethlehem, the "House of Bread" and Our Lady with the wheat ear covered dress.

Patristic literature has applied the image of God's untilled soil bringing forth the fruit of all fruit to Our Lady and writings from the fifteenth century take recourse to it. The first portrayal of the Madonna in "ear dress" is a silver statue of Our Lady in Milan’s cathedral which dates back to 1387. This image was destroyed and replaced by a painting in 1465 which in turn was exchanged with a marble statue in 1485.