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 ...

In the background at the right is Saint John the Baptist, carrying a lantern & preceded by the Lamb of God. The main towers of the town in the background suggest those of Bruges rather than Antwerp. This painting has been associated with the style of Ysenbrandt. Circular paintings are not very common in the Early Netherlandish School. ...

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 ...

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 ...

This painting was probably influenced by a Byzantine icon. It shows the Virgin & Child, together with images which represent the Redemption of Man by Christ: the Annunciation & the Crucifixion. On either side is the Last Judgement, with trumpeting angels calling people from their tombs. It may be missing a gable with the Blessing Redeemer at the top & possibly wings on either side. It was probably made for an individual for private devotion. ...

This is the centre of an altarpiece commissioned by a Pisan notary, Ser Giuliano degli Scarsi, for the chapel of Saint Julian in Santa Maria del Carmine, Pisa. The grapes the Child eats refer to the blood shed on the cross & the wine of the Last Supper. The surface is disfigured by losses & old retouchings & was originally more decorative: the Virgin's dress was a translucent red over silver leaf, which has now dulled. Some smaller fragments of the altarpiece survive in other collections: a Crucifixion over the central panel, & predella panels mainly showing lives of the saints
- John the Baptist, Saint Julian, Saint Peter & Saint Nicholas, with the Adoration of the Kings in the centre. The altarpiece is likely to have been designed as a polyptych. Masaccio was an innovative artist, who influenced the course of the Renaissance in Italy. This altarpiece shows an early use of single-point linear perspective. Elements of the painting meet at a central vanishing-point & are foreshortened to accommodate the viewpoint of the spectator looking up. The figure of the Child is three-dimensional, emphasised by his elliptical halo. Masaccio may been influenced by the sculptor Donatello who is known to have collected payments for the altarpiece on Masaccio's behalf.
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Side panels of the Virgin's life: Left: her birth
- Saint Joachim's offering rejected; an Angel appears to him; the Meeting at
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The inscription refers to the words of God to the serpent after the Fall: 'I will put enmity between you & the woman, between your seed & her seed; he shall crush your head.. .' (Genesis 3: 15) Recent cleaning has established that this painting, long believed to be a copy, is Gossaert's original. It dates from about 1527. ...