Along the walls of the gallery the visitor will find artworks of a different kind. These are framed prints representing scenes from the lives of Jesus and Mary, as well as Marian titles and shrines. Named after the French town of Epinal, these lithographs or colored engravings can be dated to the second half of the 19th century. At one time widely disseminated, images of Epinal were the big brothers and sisters of what are commonly designated as holy cards. They had a double purpose: in school they were used to make the sacred story and its many saints better known, but they also embellished the modest homes of the simple people, helping them to pray with texts printed in the margins.

The samples here displayed have a common theme. They represent some of the countless variations on the subject of Madonna and Child. Madonna and Child is the Christian icon par excellence, and the visual synthesis of nativity sets and stories about the Incarnation. In this mother and this child we contemplate the loving union between God and humanity.