Probably an early work, painted in Antwerp in the 1490s. The Virgin is being crowned. The gold of her elaborate Gothic throne, suggestive of a church, is created with gold leaf overlaid with black lines, whereas the radiance around the Virgin's head & t ...

This panel is one of the earliest paintings in the Collection. The Virgin is wearing a Byzantine crown & is seated on a lion-headed throne; she holds Christ on her lap. In the corners of the central section are the symbols of the four Evangelists. The eight smaller scenes on either side of the Virgin show episodes from the lives of saints: Saint John the Evangelist in a cauldron of boiling oil; Saint John the Evangelist resuscitating a woman called Drusiana; The Nativity with the Annunciation to the Shepherds; Saint Benedict rolling in brambles to overcome the temptation; Saint Nicholas' warning to the pilgrims to throw deadly oil given to them by the devil into the sea; Saint Catherine beheaded & her body carried to Mount Sinai by angels; Saint Nicholas miraculously saving three innocent men from being decapitated; & Saint Margaret in prison swallowed by a dragon & escaping unhurt. ...

The Virgin & Child are shown in a closed garden, the 'hortus conclusus' (closed garden in Latin), which represents chastity. Of the flowers, the iris is frequently shown as a symbol of the Virgin's grief. ...

The Christ Child, at the Virgin's breast, stares out of the picture. The landscape with its tall mountains is typical of landscape depiction in the Low Countries in the 16th century. In the past this picture has been ascribed to van Orley, but it appears n ...

The object held by the Child is a toy that could be made to rise & fall. Its shape recalls the Cross on which the adult Christ will be crucified. The pot of carnations on the right probably symbolises Christ's Passion. The extensive & detailed landsca ...

The Virgin & Child are seen in an almond-shaped aureole or mandorla (from the Italian for 'almond') of cherubim, the second of the highest order of angels representing Divine Wisdom. This work is one of many versions of an original design possibly by Per ...

The Virgin & Child are shown in an apse attended by two angels. The composition, sometimes called The Virgin in the Apse or The Virgin of Salamanca, is known in many versions. They derive from a presumed lost original by Robert Campin. The frame is orig ...

The Virgin & Child are seated in a richly appointed interior, appropriate to their divine status: the bench is hung with cloth of gold & the floor inset with precious stones. But they are also mother & child: the brass basin by the fire is for bathi ...

The picture appears to have been the central part of an altarpiece in five compartments that was in the Hercolani collection in Bologna in 1770. This altarpiece may have been the one painted by Giovanni between 1512 & 1516 for the Chapel of Saint Thomas ...

In the centre is the Virgin, surrounded by the rays of the sun & crowned as Queen of Heaven by two angels. On the left-hand shutter is Saint James the Great, & on the right, Saint Cecilia, identifiable from the inscriptions on the original frames. On ...