26,8 x 20,5 cm Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam This small painting of the Madonna depicts a fragile female figure holding her newborn together with a vanquished dragon. The artist indicates her floating, vision-like quality with the use of fantastic lighting and an army of angels in concentric circles. By arranging the choir of angels in a manner reminiscent of spheres, it is also expressed that the infant Jesus in the centre of the picture is the ruler of the Universe. With a sweeping gesture and a look of concentration, the infant is shaking two bells, as if to be in concert with the angel doing the same thing on the left side of the picture. They are definitely looking at each other, and since they are the only two doing this, the action has special significance: it shows the "conductor" Jesus in the role of the universe's prime mover. Thus the painting clearly expresses a concept formulated by St Thomas Aquinas, according to which Jesus created the harmony of the spheres. In Geertgen's painting the three attributes of Mary (glory, sadness and joy) are represented by angels encircling the Madonna in three rings. The inner circle contains six-winged cherubs and seraphs. The angels of the second circle hold above the head of Mary the early Christian symbols of glorification, scrolls with the word "Sanctus" appearing on them three times. The rest bear the objects associated with the Passion: the cross, the crown of thorns, a spear, nails, a hammer, and a column. The outside circle presents a multitude of musical angels, symbolizing heavenly happiness. Here we can see nearly all of the instruments of the period: lutes, violas, double recorders, trumpets, drums, bells, horns, bagpipes, hurdy-gurdies, etc. The larger keyboard instruments are located in the corners; on the organ we can see the hand-operated bellows. Obviously, the painter did not intend to reproduce the image of a real orchestra, that is why he included instruments which were never used together
Painting ID:: 62445
Virgin and Child
German painter
active 1470-1510 in Cologne 1510s Panel, 30 x 20,3 cm Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne This painting shows the characteristics of the school of Cologne: oval face, long nose, high forehead and an overall delicate grace.Artist:MASTER of the St. Bartholomew Altar Title: Virgin and Child Painted in 1451-1500 , German - - painting : religious
Painting ID:: 63704
130 x 86 cm Musees Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels The Virgin is seated in three-quarter profile on an imposing stone throne with Gothic ornamentation. Richly dressed in a dark red, fur-lined gown and a mantle bordered with pearl braiding, her head inclined in recollection, she holds the infant Jesus on her right arm. She appears to be meditating a passage in the book that Christ is thumbing. Their faces are surrounded by halos of golden rays. The Child, in a long white shirt, has seized the bookmark. Through an open window to the right of the throne we glimpse a building on the other side of a courtyard. The upper part of the window is decorated with a stained glass panel depicting St Catherine flanked by two escutcheons. A similar stained glass window to the left carries the figure of St Barbara. This painting, attributed to Quentin Massys, is part of the Madonna with Child group that the artist painted during his youth. The symmetrical composition, the hieratic presentation of the figures, the style of the Virgin's garments and the vigorous modelling of the draperies as well as the Gothic ornamentations all recall the tradition of the Flemish Primitives. The iconographic theme picks up the traditional image of Christ's incarnation. The Virgin in majesty is directly associated with the divine nature of her Son, the Word incarnate. Her meditative attitude and the red of her garments evoke the presentiment she had of her Child's destiny right from his birth. Massys' work refers back to earlier compositions that present Christ reading in the Virgin's arms. Two famous examples are Rogier van der Weyden's Madonna Duren (Madrid, Prado) and the Ince Hall Virgin attributed to a follower of Jan van Eyck (Melbourne, National Gallery of Victoria). With Massys we have the same monumental pose of the Virgin, with the niche-shaped throne similar to the one in Van der Weyden's painting. Even if the Brussels Madonna with Child shows how much the painter was part of the Flemish tradition, before coming under the influence of the Renaissance, it already contains the novel elements that were to make Massys the captivating and highly innovative artist whose talent would be fully revealed in his later works. With his exceptionally ample volumes, his supple shapes caressed by a strong, yet soft light, and the virtuoso translucency of his colouring technique, he carries the art of modelling forward to new heights. , Artist: MASSYS, Quentin , Virgin and Child , 1451-1500 , Flemish , painting , religious
Painting ID:: 63980
1475-1500 Oil on oak panel, 38 x 29,7 cm Private collection The Virgin is carrying the naked Infant Christ, who is sitting on a cloth, in both hands. She is in front of a wall-hanging in red-gold brocade and is clothed in a dark blue garment with a grey fur lining and a mantle of the same colour (in fact it has darkened into blue-green). With his left hand the Child reaches for the hanger of a necklace made of red coral (possibly an allusion to the blood of his sacrifice), and in his other hand he holds a pear (as the fruit of the `new Adam', an allusion to Salvation). The Virgin is situated in front of a golden balustrade with an arcade of rounded arches which encloses the choir of a church with stained-glass windows. She appears behind a golden arch resting on brown marble pillars. The image should probably be interpreted as a Virgin who is standing behind a low wall supporting an arch. The top of this little wall was originally probably visible and seems to have been sawn off. This Virgin-and-Child type is frequently encountered in works by Memling and his followers, sometimes with the Child sitting on the wall. Related examples by Memling are: the Van Nieuwenhove Virgin (Memlingmuseum, Bruges); the Virgin and Child in Lisbon (Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga). A similar type by a Memling follower is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The little work discussed here is also Memlingian from a stylistic point of view. The type of the Virgin with the bulging forehead, the long straight nose and the narrow bow-shaped eyebrows is particularly closely related to Memling. The faces, however, are flatter and squarer, especially in the case of the Child. Apart from the Virgin type the staffage and architectural surroundings have the same roots: red brocade hangings with vegetally decorated edges, brown marble columns on each side, perspective of a church interior with stained-glass windows consisting of small coloured squares. , Artist: UNKNOWN MASTER, Flemish , Virgin and Child , 1451-1500 , Flemish , painting , religious
Painting ID:: 64141
Virgin and Child
Flemish Baroque Era Painter, 1577-1640 1620-24 Oil on wood, 65 x 48 cm Mus?es Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels Artist:RUBENS, Pieter Pauwel Title: Virgin and Child, 1601-1650, Flemish , painting , religious
Painting ID:: 64698
Virgin and Child
Flemish Baroque Era Painter, 1577-1640 62 x 50 cm St.-Niklaaskerk, Brussels Artist:RUBENS, Pieter Pauwel Title: Virgin and Child, 1601-1650, Flemish , painting , religious
Painting ID:: 64700
Virgin and Child
1478-1534
Flemish
Jan Gossaert Mabuse Galleries Date ca. 1530(1530)
Medium Oil on oak
Dimensions Height: 48 cm (18.9 in). Width: 38 cm (15 in).
cjr
Painting ID:: 83556
Date between 1500(1500) and 1505(1505)
Medium Oil and tempera on panel
Dimensions Height: 81 cm (31.9 in). Width: 62 cm (24.4 in).
cjr
Painting ID:: 83562
Virgin and Child
Flemish Northern Renaissance Painter , c.1488-1551
Date ca. 1515(1515)
Medium Oil on wood
Dimensions Height: 59 cm (23.2 in). Width: 38.5 cm (15.2 in).
cjr
Painting ID:: 84701
Dieric Bouts 1460-5
Medium Oil and tempera on panel
cyf Virgin and Child 1420-1475 Flemish Dieric Bouts Locations
Dirk Bouts whose real name was Theodorik Romboutszoon, was probably born in Haarlem, where he may have studied under the painter Albert van Ouwater. Sometime before 1450 Bouts took up residence in the Flemish city of Louvain. His name appeared in the records of Louvain in 1457 and again in 1468, when he was appointed "city painter."
It is likely that Bouts spent some time in Bruges, as his earliest work, the Infancy Altarpiece shows the distinct and strong influence of Petrus Christus, the leading master of that city after the death of Jan van Eyck. The slightly later Deposition Altarpiece (ca. 1450) displays strong connections with the style of Rogier van der Weyden in both the figure types and the composition. About 1460, the period of the Entombment in London, the early, formative influence of Petrus Christus had been almost totally displaced by that of Rogier, though Bouts personal vision began to emerge in the fluid and continuous landscape background.
The great Last Supper Altarpiece (1464-1467) marks the high point of Bouts career. In this solemn and dignified masterpiece the painter achieved spiritual grandeur in the context of convincing physical reality. The central panel of the altarpiece is the most emphatically significant treatment of the theme of the Last Supper in Northern European art. The wings, which contain Old Testament prefigurations of the central theme, are freer and more loosely organized. Eschewing the symmetry and rigid axial construction of the main panel, Bouts produced rhythmic foreground compositions in combination with fluid and dramatic spatial recessions.
In 1468 Bouts was commissioned to paint four panels on the subject of justice for the Town Hall of Louvain. At the painter death in 1475 only two of the paintings had been completed; they are among the most remarkable productions of his career. The unusual subjects, taken from the chronicles of a 12th-century historian, concern the wrongful execution by Emperor Otto III of one of his counts and the subsequent vindication of the nobleman by his wife. The finer of the panels represents the dramatic trial by fire which the wife was obliged to undergo to prove her husband innocence. Rich draperies and sumptuous colors are applied to tall angular forms to create a work of rare formal elegance and high decorative appeal. In order to dignify the event, however, the artist has employed restrained gestures and expressions as well as a completely rationalized spatial setting. As in the Last Supper Altarpiece, a sense of solemn and hieratic importance is expressed by means of an austere and rigid geometry in the construction of both persons and places.
The late productions of Bouts workshop, such as the well-known Pearl of Brabant Altarpiece, are characterized by the close collaboration of the painter two sons, Dirk the Younger (1448-1491) and Aelbrecht (1455/1460-1549). In the paintings of his less gifted sons, the master distinctive figure style was appreciably altered, though Dirk the Younger appears to have retained much of his father sensitivity to the landscape.
In addition to his innovations in the depiction of landscape, Bouts made a substantial contribution to the development of the portrait. His Portrait of a Man (1462) localizes the sitter in an enlarged architectural setting while permitting the interior space to merge with the exterior through an open window. For the first time in Northern painting a common bond was forged between a particularized individual and the universal world of nature.
