Virgin and Child in a Niche

Workshop of Jan van Eyck Netherlandish

Not on view

Around the year 1500, many Netherlandish artists were preoccupied with reviving motifs from the art of Jan van Eyck, who was already viewed as the founder of a prestigious local tradition. This picture, by an unidentified painter, reflects the popularity of Van Eyck’s Virgin and Child at the Fountain (Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp). The artist adopted the standing figure of the Virgin lovingly embracing her Child from Van Eyck’s painting, but placed her within a flamboyant Gothic niche adorned with statuettes of the biblical figures of Moses and Isaiah (above) and personifications of the Church and Synagogue (below).

Virgin and Child in a Niche, Workshop of Jan van Eyck (Netherlandish, Maaseik ca. 1390–1441 Bruges), Oil on wood

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