The Virgin and Child

Details

Studio of Jan Gossaert, called Mabuse (?Maubeuge c.1478-1532 Antwerp?)
The Virgin and Child
oil on panel
17 5/8 x 13¼ in. (44.8 x 33.6 cm.)

Exhibited

Schaffhausen, Museum zu Allerheiligen, Meisterwerke Flämischer Malerei, 1955, no. 45.
Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans-Van Beuningen, and Bruges, Groeningemuseum, Jan Gossaert, 1965, 15 May-27 June, and 10 July-31 August 1965, no. 30.

Special notice

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Lot Essay

The Virgin and Child was a subject to which Gossaert returned on many occasions through his career. The present composition recalls in particular the group of four Virgin and Child paintings recorded by Friedländer as his nos. 29-32 (M.J. Friedländer, Early Netherlandish Painting, VIII, Leiden, 1972, p. 94, nos. 29-32, fig. 31), with the Virgin half-length with a head-dress, before a ledge or table, on which the Christ Child sits. Of those, perhaps that to which the present work is closest is that recorded by Friedländer as in the Huck collection (bid., no. 30), from which the motif of the Child reaching up to the Virgin's chin seems to be taken. That work he dates to circa 1520, a period that would appear to fit for the present studio work.

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