The Rest on the Flight into Egypt

The Artist: For a biography of Gerard David, see “Gerard David (born about 1455, died 1523).” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–.

The Painting: In one brief account in the Gospel of Saint Matthew (2:13), after the three kings had departed from paying homage to the Christ Child, an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream. He warned Joseph to escape with Mary and the Christ Child to Egypt. There they would be safe from King Herod’s advancing soldiers, who had been ordered to seek out and kill the Child. This succinct narrative was augmented by apocryphal accounts, namely the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew and The Golden Legend, among many others.[1]

As is typical of early Netherlandish artists, David took artistic license for his rendition of the story, exchanging what historically should have been a Middle-Eastern setting for the lush landscape and locally-familiar town views of Flanders. The Met’s painting calls attention to the continuous journey of the Holy Family. They are seen emerging from the deep, dark forests in the middle-ground—Mary and the Child plodding along on a donkey with Joseph behind them—and heading toward the charming Flemish village at the left. Although the biblical text proclaims Egypt as the destination, The Golden Legend specifically mentions Hieropolis.[2]

The focal point of the image of course is the Virgin and Christ Child. Mary is seated on a rocky ledge, as the Virgin of Humility. Appearing as natural as any mother and child, the Virgin nurses her son in a type traditionally known as the Madonna lactans. He, in turn, looks out, directly engaging the viewer. This recalls the accounts of the female mystics of the Low Countries who associated holy food, that is, the Eucharist, with ordinary sustenance (Bynam 1987). The Virgin provides the nourishment of her own milk, just as the Christ Child will sustain the faithful with his own sacrificed body and blood through the Crucifixion. This association is supported by such details as the red color of the Virgin’s underdress, the color associated with Christ’s Passion. Strategically placed just below at the extreme foreground of the painting is plantain, medically used as a stauncher for blood, but also symbolic of Christ’s Passion and the Salvation of humankind, as well as the Virgin’s humility.[3] Surrounding the Virgin and Child are other plants that symbolize Christ’s Incarnation and Redemption of humankind. The broken bough of apples signifies the original sin of Adam and Eve, which was expunged by Christ, the new Adam. The ivy at the left denotes eternal life.[4] Mint (a Marian reference) and ferns (for humility and salvation) can be identified in the background. The water flowing through the rocks at the lower left may refer to the well of living waters in the Song of Songs (4:15), but also may derive from one of the many texts on the trials and tribulation of the Holy Family’s arduous journey. One of the devotional texts of Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows, the chapter on the Flight into Egypt, relates that the people of the city of Materca in Egypt refused to offer water to the fugitives, at which point a spring suddenly appeared at the Virgin’s feet.[5]

The Attribution and Date: Aside from a few early suggestions of the participation of Adraien Isenbrant, there has been no challenge to Gerard David as the sole author of this work (see Refs.). It dates to around 1512–15, that is, among those paintings that show the influence of David’s new exposure to Italian art (see also the Virgin and Child with Four Angels, 1977.1.1). It is possible that David traveled to Liguria to take up a major commission for the Cervara Altarpiece (see 50.145.9ab), completed in 1506 for Vincenzo Sauli for the monastery church of San Gerolamo della Cervara (Ainsworth 2005), and thereby encountered many examples of north Italian art, specifically by followers of Leonardo da Vinci. Perhaps works such as Bergognone’s paintings of the Virgin and Child, now in the Accademia Carrara, Bergamo, and Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan (both ca. 1485; see figs. 1 and 2 above), suggested to David the poignant expression of the Virgin’s face, the specific manner in which the Virgin’s breast emerges from below her neatly pinned chemise, and the pose of the nursing Child who turns to communicate with the viewer.

The new influence of Italian art is especially notable in a comparison of The Met’s Rest on the Flight into Egypt with another version in the National Gallery of Art of around 1500–1505 (fig. 3). The Washington composition depends upon a series of parallel, overlapping planes of different wedges of color in alternating dark and light tones to suggest the recession of space into the background. The Virgin and Child sit before this landscape rather than in it, their planar frontal placement enhanced by the extension of the Virgin’s mantle arranged across the foreground rocky ledge. By contrast, in The Met’s painting, through lessons learned from Italian art, the Virgin and Child together form a great pyramid on the rocky ledge, convincingly setting them into rather than before the landscape. Additionally, the successfully modulated color and light in the background landscape achieves along with the lush forest of trees a niche-like effect behind the Virgin and Child. The faces of the two show a new use and understanding of sfumato effects, and in the draperies of the Virgin David appears to have assimilated the lessons of chiaroscuro treatment in the manner of Leonardo. These strategies all work together to achieve a remarkably intimate environment and an Andachtsbild (devotional image) ideal for meditation—which was, of course, the aim of such devotional paintings intended to enhance the viewer’s empathy with the Virgin and Child.

Strategies for Serial Production: This Rest of the Flight into Egypt survives in several copies and versions, testifying not only to the popularity of the theme at the time, but also to David’s careful planning for an adaptable model for open market sales. Extant is a lively sketch in pen and ink over traces of black chalk (Rothschild Collection, Cabinet des Dessins, Musée du Louvre, Paris; fig. 4), apparently made out of doors in a sketchbook.[6] As if he had the composition of the Rest on the Flight into Egypt already in mind, David deliberately placed the familiar town scene nestled in the trees at the top of the sheet. He left the lower part open for overlapping hills strewn with plants and flowers and the figures of the Virgin and Child, just as in The Met’s painting. Such sketches recorded from nature perhaps precluded the necessity to make extensive underdrawings for the landscape portion of the painting, as there is little visible. However, that David produced both the landscape and the figures is clear from the continuous overlapping of edges of forms that reveal constant adjustments of one artist at work.

David lavished attention on the careful underdrawing for the Virgin and Child, making changes here and there in the configuration of folds in the Virgin’s draperies, presumably—especially at the lower right edge—to establish the workshop pattern for additional copies and versions (fig. 5). David’s own handling and execution of the underdrawing here is evident from a comparison with his pen and ink drawing, The Virgin and Child at the Fountain of around 1510 (Kupferstichkabinett, SMPK, Berlin; fig. 6). Both drawing and underdrawing exhibit the same graphic idiosyncracies: jagged contours of folds that are emphasized by short crossing lines, like stitching; shallow folds indicated by long, wispy parallel strokes, usually going from upper right to lower left; and peaks of folds with short, staccato parallel strokes angled uniformly to the left or to the right.

The copies and variations of this work both with full-length and half-length figures (for the latter, see 32.100.53) show their dependence on the model that David created in The Met’s painting. The version in the Museo del Prado, Madrid (fig. 7), is a weaker copy that reveals a probably traced underdrawing for the figures from a pre-existing pattern, and a more formulaic and sharply contrasted treatment of the Virgin’s draperies.[7] The sfumato treatment of the faces in The Met's painting is ignored in the Prado version. Furthermore, there is an abbreviated approach to the lush forest of The Met’s painting. It is not only handling and execution, but also slight changes in motifs and features that one encounters in the workshop production. The Prado painting adds a traveling basket and Joseph’s walking stick near the Virgin, as well as a spoon in the hand of the Christ Child, just as in the half-length version in The Met’s collection (32.100.53). Such minor adjustments for workshop copies and replicas suggest an effort to appeal to clients making open-market purchases, most likely in Antwerp at the pand. These are some of the strategies employed by David to ensure his livelihood in an increasingly competitive market—one that prompted him also to join the painters’ guild in Antwerp so that he could sell his paintings there as well as in Bruges.

Maryan W. Ainsworth 2019

[1] See Reindert Falkenburg, Joachim Patinir, Landscape as an Image of the Pilgrimage of Life, Amsterdam, 1988, pp. 42–51.
[2] See The Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine, translated and adapted from the Latin by Granger Ryan and Helmut Ripperger, New York, 1941, p. 66.
[3] Falkenburg 1988, p. 27. Mirella Levi d’Ancona, The Garden of the Renaissance: Botanical Symbolism in Italian Painting, Florence 1977, pp. 308–10.
[4] Levi d’Ancona, 1977, p. 190.
[5] Falkenburg 1988, pp. 49–50.
[6] See Ainsworth 1998, pp. 32–33, fig. 40; see also Pascal Torres Guardiola, Dessins et Estampes du XVème au XVIIIème siècles de la collection Edmond de Rothschild, Fundación Juan March, 6 février–30 Mai 2004, 7 octobre 2004–10 janvier 2005, [Madrid], 2004, no. 31.
[7] I am grateful to José Juan Pérez Preciado of the Museo del Prado, Madrid, for a fruitful exchange of technical documentation and opinions on the comparison of the New York and Madrid paintings (emails of April 4, 15, 26, and 28 in Curatorial File, Department of European Paintings Department, The Met).
[8] For a further discussion of this matter, see Ainsworth 1998, pp. 257–312; and Maryan W. Ainsworth, “Gerard David in Antwerp,” in Imagery and Ingenuity in Early Modern Europe: Essay in Honor of Jeffrey Chipps Smith, ed. by Catherine Ingersoll, Alisa McCusker, and Jessica Weiss, Turnhout, 2019, pp. 93–102.

Support: The support was constructed from one plank of oak, with the grain oriented vertically. Dendrochronological analysis indicated an earliest possible creation date of 1501 with a more plausible date of 1507 onwards.[1] The wood originated in the Baltic/Polish region. The original panel was thinned to 6 mm (1/4 inch) mounted to a 4 mm (3/16 inch) panel and cradled. The edges of the panel were trimmed up to the barbe, but the presence of the barbe on all edges indicates that the original dimensions of the painting are preserved and that the panel was prepared with an engaged frame in place.

Preparation: The panel was prepared with a white ground. Examination with infrared reflectography revealed the presence of an underdrawing, executed using a liquid material and what appears to be a pen (see fig. 5 above).[2] The artist laid out all important contours of the Virgin and Child in a fairly free manner, drawing eyelids, nostrils, and lips with cursory marks. He spent some time working out the shading on the Virgin’s drapery, indicating shadows with long parallel hatches and emphasizing the deepest folds with rows of short, curved lines. There appears to be very little underdrawing in the landscape; there may be a few lines in the trees and the rock formations, but these are located in areas of dark paint and are therefore difficult to distinguish in the reflectogram.

Paint Layers: David demonstrated his sensitivity to lighting effects in painting this scene, from the underdrawing stage through the final paint glazes. The Virgin and Child are strongly illuminated from the upper left, with the light catching the gauzy white fabric of her head covering and the Child’s robe, and defining the sculptural folds of her blue garments. David produced lights and dark in the fleshtones by adding grey paint, a technical strategy that he does not seem to have frequently employed prior to this painting. A minimal use of grey was noted in the fleshtones in the Virgin and Child with Four Angels (1977.1.1; see Technical Notes for that work), but not to the degree seen in the Rest on the Flight into Egypt. The x-radiographs of the two paintings demonstrate the differences in technique: in the Rest on the Flight into Egypt, the distribution of lead white in the fleshtones is fairly widespread and even (fig. 8)—aside from a few final highlights in the Virgin’s nose and forehead (related to the white head covering)—as opposed to the stronger gradation from radio-opaque to less radio-opaque areas seen in the faces in the Virgin and Child with Four Angels. In that work David generally restricted his use of lead white to the highlights, and only added a small amount of grey in the shadows, resulting in higher contrast in the x-radiograph. David used more lead white throughout the fleshtones in the Rest on the Flight into Egypt, including more grey (lead white and black pigments) in the shadows.

The strong lighting of the Virgin and Child could seem incongruous with the outdoor setting, but for David’s clever composition. He placed them before a dark forest and while the trees are clearly in the background, small in scale and positioned behind the hillocks, David played with the space by making the trees appear to form a niche around the two figures. The trees to the right and left of the Virgin and Child have meticulous bright yellow highlights, while the trees behind the figures have a final glaze of deep green, and so recede somewhat. The sense that the Virgin and Child are surrounded by this dark forest warrants the more dramatic lighting on the figures. The artist appears to have painted figures and landscape simultaneously, moving back and forth between the two. This, together with the sophisticated consideration of lighting throughout, suggests that David worked on the entire painting and did not delegate the background to an assistant.

A few minor changes were made to the composition. One fold at the lower right edge of the Virgin’s robe was originally painted larger, and is now evident as a slightly blue pentiment. A second fold to the right of the Virgin’s robe was not ultimately painted, although the contour was painted with blue and is also slightly visible as a pentiment.

The painting is well preserved but is somewhat altered due to age and condition. It has suffered some abrasion of the uppermost paint layers, as in the warm browns in the fleshtones and the dark folds of the Virgin’s robes. There are traces of what appears to be a faded red lake in the Virgin’s blue robe, and so it would have been more purple in tone. The mustard yellow of the grass in the midground would originally have appeared a more vibrant green; a discolored copper-containing green glaze seems to have been damaged there, leaving only a thin brownish glaze over yellowish underpaint.

Sophie Scully 2020

[1] Wood identification and dendrochronological analysis completed by Dr. Peter Klein, Universität Hamburg, report dated May 12, 1997. The report can be found in the files of the Department of Paintings Conservation. “The youngest heartwood ring was formed out in the year 1490. Regarding the sapwood statistic of Eastern Europe an earliest felling date can be derived for the year 1499, more plausible is a felling date between 1503..1505….1509. With a minimum of 2 years for seasoning an earliest creation of the painting is possible from 1501 upwards. Under the assumption of a median of 15 sapwood rings and 2 years for seasoning, as probably usual in the 14th/15th century, a creation is plausible from 1507 upwards.”
[2] Infrared reflectography was acquired with an OSIRIS InGaAs near-infrared camera fitted with a 6-element, 150 mm focal length f/5.6–f/45 lens; 900-1700 nm spectral response, by Evan Read, March 2019.

W. Mansell MacCulloch, Touillets, Guernsey (until 1902; sale, Christie's, London, May 31, 1902, no. 70, as Early Flemish School, for £892.10.0, to Dowdeswell); [Dowdeswell & Dowdeswell, London, from 1902]; Mr. and Mrs. Frank Stoop, London (by 1906–28); [Duveen, London and New York, 1928; sold for $300,000 to Bache]; Jules S. Bache, New York (1928–d. 1944; his estate, 1944–49; cats., 1929, unnumbered; 1937, no. 22; 1943, no. 21)

Art Gallery of the Corporation of London. "Early Flemish Painters," 1906, no. 52 (as by Isenbrant, lent by Mrs. Frank Stoop).

London. Burlington House. "Flemish & Belgian Art: 1300–1900," 1927, no. 104 (as by Gerard David, lent by Frank Stoop).

New York. F. Kleinberger Galleries. "Flemish Primitives," 1929, no. 29 (lent by Jules S. Bache).

New York. World's Fair. "Masterpieces of Art: European Paintings and Sculpture from 1300–1800," May–October 1939, no. 77 (lent by Jules S. Bache, New York).

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Gerard David: Flanders's Last Medieval Master," April 1–May 9, 1972, no catalogue?

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "From Van Eyck to Bruegel: Early Netherlandish Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 22, 1998–February 21, 1999, no. 82.

Brisbane. Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art. "European Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York," June 12–October 17, 2021, unnumbered cat.

Osaka. Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts. "European Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York," November 13, 2021–January 16, 2022, no. 9.

Tokyo. National Art Center. "European Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York," February 9–May 30, 2022, no. 9.

W. H. J. Weale. "Miscellaneous Notes and Letters: Painting by Gerard David in the Collection of Don Pablo Bosch at Madrid." Burlington Magazine 7 (April–September 1905), p. 470, publishes this painting as an almost exact replica of the example in the Bosch collection (see Notes), attributing it, however, to Isenbrant.

Emile Durand-Gréville. "Les primitifs flamands a l'exposition de Guildhall." Les arts anciens de flandre 2 (1906–7), p. 183, ascribes it to Gerard David, possibly with the help of Isenbrant.

Salomon Reinach. Répertoire de peintures du moyen age et de la renaissance (1280–1580). Vol. 3, Paris, 1910, p. 286, as by Gerard David, a good replica of a lost original.

Max J. Friedländer. Von Eyck bis Bruegel: Studien zur Geschichte der Niederländischen Malerei. Berlin, 1916, p. 180, lists it with works by Gerard David.

Martin Conway. The Van Eycks and Their Followers. London, 1921, pp. 285–86, cites our picture and a painting of this subject in the Nemes collection (now Boymans-van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam) as popular works by David that were frequently imitated or repeated in the master's studio; mentions the Madrid and Antwerp examples as repetitions of the whole with slight changes .

Ludwig Baldass. "Die Niederländer des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts auf der Ausstellung flämischer Kunst in London." Belvedere 11 (September 1927), p. 111, notes that our panel is without doubt the best of the known examples, and surely the wrok of David; comments that Joos van Cleve later varied this composition.

Tancred Borenius in Catalogue of the Loan Exhibition of Flemish & Belgian Art: A Memorial Volume. Ed. Martin Conway. Exh. cat., Royal Academy of Arts. London, 1927, pp. xviii, 47, no. 104, ascribes it to Gerard David, calling it almost identical with the Madrid picture.

Apollo 6 (July–December 1927), ill. opp. p. 235 (color).

Max J. Friedländer. Die altniederländische Malerei. Vol. 6, Memling und Gerard David. Berlin, 1928, p. 154, no. 212a, pl. 95, catalogues it as a replica of the Madrid example and of equal quality.

A Catalogue of Paintings in the Collection of Jules S. Bache. New York, 1929, unpaginated, ill.

Walter Heil. "The Jules Bache Collection." Art News 27 (April 27, 1929), p. 4.

August L. Mayer. "Die Sammlung Jules Bache in New-York." Pantheon 6 (December 1930), p. 542, ill. opp. p. 537.

Sidney P. Noe. "Flemish Primitives in New York." American Magazine of Art 21 (January 1930), p. 37.

Royal Cortissoz. "The Jules S. Bache Collection." American Magazine of Art 21 (May 1930), p. 258, ill. p. 248.

Edward Alden Jewell. "Art Aids Philanthropy: Private Collections to Be Visited for 'Adopt-a-Family' Fund – The Academy." New York Times (April 2, 1933), p. 10X, ill., as "Madonna and Child".

Ludwig Baldass. "Gerard David als Landschaftsmaler." Jahrbuch der kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien, n.s., 10 (1936), pp. 93–94, calls a painting in Lisbon (Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga) David's earliest example of this subject and places ours later, after 1498; describes the landscape in this picture as one of the earliest representations of a forest.

Max J. Friedländer. Die altniederländische Malerei. Vol. 14, Pieter Bruegel und Nachträge zu den früheren Bänden. Leiden, 1937, p. 106.

A Catalogue of Paintings in the Bache Collection. under revision. New York, 1937, unpaginated, no. 22, ill.

"Bache Donates His Art to Public for a Museum: Home at 814 Fifth Ave. to House $20,000,000 Collection; Donor Sails Before Gift Is Revealed." New York Herald Tribune (April 29, 1937), p. 13, as "Madonna and Child".

"J. S. Bache Gives His Art Collection and 5th Avenue Residence to State." New York Times (April 29, 1937), p. 14, as "The Madonna and Child".

"Bache Art Works on Display Today: Former Residence on 5th Ave. Joins Front Rank of Small but Great Museums." New York Times (November 16, 1937), p. 25, as "Madonna and Child".

Royal Cortissoz. "The Great Masters in the Bache Collection." New York Herald Tribune (November 21, 1937), p. E9, as "Madonna and Child"; calls it "graciously moving".

Edward Alden Jewell. "Bache Collection Opens: Old Masters in Their Intimate Setting Are Made Accessible to the Public." New York Times (November 21, 1937), p. 10, as "Madonna and Child".

Frank Crowninshield. "Jules S. Bache, the Collector." Vogue 91 (May 1, 1938), ill. p. 81 (Bache townhouse Dutch room).

Duveen Pictures in Public Collections of America. New York, 1941, unpaginated, no. 180, give it to David and date it about 1497.

Harry B. Wehle. "The Bache Collection on Loan." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 1 (June 1943), p. 288.

A Catalogue of Paintings in the Bache Collection. rev. ed. New York, 1943, unpaginated, no. 21, ill.

K. G. Boon. Gerard David. Amsterdam, [1946], p. 39, ill. p. 34, ascribes it to David.

Harry B. Wehle and Margaretta Salinger. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of Early Flemish, Dutch and German Paintings. New York, 1947, pp. 93–94, ill., as by Gerard David.

Leo van Puyvelde. The Flemish Primitives. Brussels, 1948, p. 31.

M. L. D'Otrange. "Gerard David at the Metropolitan, New York." Connoisseur 128 (January 1952), p. 211, ill. p. 210, as "assigned by many authorities to the studio of David, as a replica by some pupil, perhaps with David's assistance".

Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 27.

Georges Marlier. Ambrosius Benson et la peinture à Bruges au temps de Charles-Quint. Damme, Belgium, 1957, pp. 103–4, 109, 122–23, 127, cites instances of Benson's borrowing from this composition.

Erik Larsen. Les primitifs flamands au Musée Metropolitain de New York. Utrecht, 1960, pp. 80, 124, fig. 24, ascribes it to David himself.

R. H. Wilenski. Flemish Painters, 1430–1830. New York, 1960, vol. 1, pp. 104, 108, 112–13; vol. 2, pl. 201A, comments that a "landscape specialist" probably provided the setting for this picture, which he ascribes to the "New York Rest on the Flight Painter".

Charles D. Cuttler. Northern Painting from Pucelle to Bruegel. New York, 1968, pp. 195–96, observes that "David's work on this theme if not contemporaneous with the Jan de Trompes altarpiece [with the Baptism of Christ, Groeninge Museum, Bruges], may have received its initial presentation shortly before.

Margaret Whinney. Early Flemish Painting. New York, 1968, p. 114, colorpl. C, ascribes it to Gerard David.

Max J. Friedländer et al. Early Netherlandish Painting. Vol. 6, Hans Memlinc and Gerard David. New York, 1971, part 2, p. 107, no. 212a, pl. 215, calls it a close replica, of equal merit, of an original in the Prado.

M. L. Dufey-Haeck. "Le thème du repos pendant la fuite en Egypte dans le peinture flamand de la second moitié du XVe au milieu du XVIe siècle." Revue belge d'archéologie et d'histoire d'art 48 (1979), pp. 54–55.

Edwin James Mundy III. "Gerard David Studies." PhD diss., Princeton University, 1980, pp. 141–42, 157 n. 52, p. 195 n. 69, suggests that David's small devotional pictures, like the Rest on the Flight paintings, were bought in the shop by customers rather than comissioned.

James Mundy. "Gerard David's 'Rest on the Flight into Egypt': Further Additions to Grape Symbolism." Simiolus 12, no. 4 (1981–82), p. 219.

Larry Silver. The Paintings of Quinten Massys with Catalogue Raisonné. Montclair, N.J., 1984, pp. 58, 177, pl. 29, cites it as the "direct inspiration" for the substitution of the "Rest" for the "Flight" in Massys's Madre de Deus altarpiece, as the source for the otherwise senseless gesture of the Virgin, and as the model for Joos van Cleve's half-length nursing Virgins .

Maryan W. Ainsworth. "Gerard David's Working Methods: Some Preliminary Observations." Le Dessin sous-jacent dans la peinture. Ed. Roger van Schoute and Dominique Hollanders-Favart. Colloque 5, Louvain-la-Neuve, 1985, pp. 54, 56, 58 n. 3, pl. 18 (reflectogram assembly, detail of Virgin's drapery), notes that the underdrawing is relatively summary and that "there is evidence (admittedly not easily detected) of a design transferred by pouncing"; believes that "what is left . . . is the pen and ink drawing over remnants of the pounced cartoon".

Paul Vandenbroeck. Catalogus Schilderijen 14e en 15e Eeuw: Koninklijk Museum voor schone Kunsten. Antwerp, 1985, p. 73, mentions our picture and the one in the Prado in connection with the Antwerp version, which he ascribes to a follower of David.

John Oliver Hand in John Oliver Hand and Martha Wolff. Early Netherlandish Painting. Washington, 1986, pp. 64, 67 n. 14, observes that the best example of this composition, in the Prado, is probably by David, and calls our picture an excellent replica.

Robert Genaille. "La paysage flamand et wallon au XVIe siècle." Jaarboek van het Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen (1986), p. 68.

Introduction by James Snyder in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: The Renaissance in the North. New York, 1987, pp. 12, 46, ill. (color).

Caroline Walker Bynum. Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women. Berkeley, 1987, pp. 117, 270–71.

Reindert L. Falkenburg. Joachim Patinir: Landscape as an Image of the Pilgrimage of Life. Amsterdam, 1988, pp. 27–28, 47–50.

Hans J. van Miegroet. Gerard David. Antwerp, 1989, pp. 242, 244, 246, 254, 265 nn. 61–63, pp. 271, 301–2, no. 35a, colorpl. 234 and ill. p. 301 (in both cases erroneously identified as the picture in the Prado, Madrid), confuses our painting with the version in the Prado; catalogues it as a replica of the Prado picture and dates both the Prado and Washington versions about 1515.

Maryan W. Ainsworth. "Gerard David, Hans J. van Miegroet." Art Bulletin 72 (December 1990), p. 653, observes that Van Miegroet has confused our painting and the Prado version in both his text and catalogue sections; believes the Washington version predates these pictures, placing it about 1505, while the New York and Madrid paintings must be later, "possibly after an Italian experience, with their hint of sfumato and their relatively more opaque applications of paint" .

Jean C. Wilson. "Connoisseurship and Copies: The Case of the Rouen Grouping." Gazette des beaux-arts, 6th ser., 118 (May–June 1991), pp. 192–96, 200, 204 n. 6, ill.

Lorne Campbell. "Book Reviews: Gerard David. By Hans J. van Miegroet, 1989." Burlington Magazine 133 (September 1991), p. 625, comments on the author's confusion between this picture and the Prado version.

Introduction by Walter A. Liedtke in Flemish Paintings in America: A Survey of Early Netherlandish and Flemish Paintings in the Public Collections of North America. Antwerp, 1992, p. 326, no. 177, ill.

Maryan W. Ainsworth. "A Meeting of Sacred and Secular Worlds." From Van Eyck to Bruegel: Early Netherlandish Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Maryan W. Ainsworth and Keith Christiansen. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1998, pp. 71, 74, 85, 250, 252, 266–67, 280–81, 302, 308–12, no. 82, ill. (color, overall and detail), dates it about 1510–15 and the panel in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, about 1500–05; discusses the iconography.

Maryan W. Ainsworth. Gerard David: Purity of Vision in an Age of Transition. New York, 1998, pp. vii, 32–33, 55 n. 78, pp. 206, 245, 247–49, 270, 280–87, 298, 311 n. 86, pp. 318, 320, 322, 324, ill. (overall and detail), dates our painting after the version in the National Gallery, Washington, on the basis of its technique and its greater sophistication in mastering three-dimensional bodies in space; calls the picture in the Prado a weaker variant which must have been made by a workshop assistant in close collaboration with David; observes that in each of these versions the trees appear as a repeated pattern with minor modifications, evidence that David used preliminary landscape studies in their creation; notes that dendrochronological analysis reveals a felling date of 1499 for our panel's source tree.

Jean C. Wilson. Paintings in Bruges at the Close of the Middle Ages: Studies in Society and Visual Culture. University Park, Pa., 1998, pp. 91–103, 202, 219 n. 15, p. 222 n. 59, fig. 39, dates it about 1510–20.

Francisco Fernández Pardo et al., ed. Las tablas flamencas en la ruta Jacobea. Exh. cat., Claustro de la Iglesia de Palacio, Logroño. San Sebastián, Spain, 1999, p. 358.

Stephanie Buck. Die niederländischen Zeichnungen des 15. Jahrhunderts im Berliner Kupferstichkabinett: Kritischer Katalog. Turnhout, Belgium, 2001, p. 180, fig. 73.

Maryan W. Ainsworth. "Was Simon Bening a Panel Painter?" Corpus of Illuminated Manuscripts 11–12 (2002), pp. 15–16, ill.

Maryan W. Ainsworth in Thomas Kren and Scot McKendrick. Illuminating The Renaissance: The Triumph of Flemish Manuscript Painting in Europe. Exh. cat., J. Paul Getty Museum. Los Angeles, 2003, p. 453, ill.

Maryan W. Ainsworth. "'Diverse patterns pertaining to the crafts of painters or illuminators': Gerard David and the Bening Workshop." Master Drawings 41, no. 3 (2003), p. 265.

Joaquín Yarza Luaces in Gerard David y el paisaje flamenco. Exh. cat., Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. Madrid, 2003, p. 64.

Meryle Secrest. Duveen: A Life in Art. New York, 2004, p. 425.

Maryan W. Ainsworth. "Gerard David. Vita e opere." Il Polittico della Cervara di Gerard David. Ed. Clario Di Fabio. Exh. cat., Musei di Strada Nuova — Palazzo Bianco, Genoa. Milan, 2005, pp. 21–22, fig. 9 (color), comments on the marked change between this composition and David's earlier panel of the subject from about 1500–1505 (National Gallery, Washington); sees in our example a "new successful integration of three-dimensional figures within a landscape . . . informed by Italian lessons of geometric form and the importance of shadow in creating perspective"; mentions the Lombard "Nursing Virgin" (Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan) [now attributed to Bergognone (?)] as a forerunner for the Virgin and Child in our picture.

Old Master & British Paintings. Christie's, London. December 9, 2015, p. 18, under no. 109.

Rafael Cornudella. "From Patinir's Workshop to the Monastery of Pedralbes: A Virgin and Child in a Landscape." Locus Amœnus 16 (2018), p. 37.

Katharine Baetjer in European Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Exh. cat., Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art. South Brisbane, 2021, pp. 80, 231, ill. pp. 81–83 (color, overall and detail).

Anne Hilker. "The Art of Rivalry: The Jules S. Bache Collection, Its Formation, and Its Donation to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1919–44." Journal of the History of Collections 36, no. 2 (2024), fig. 5 (Bache collection study chart) .