Virgin and Child

Dieric Bouts

1475–99 · Oil on wood · European Paintings

This is the finest surviving example by a workshop assistant of Dieric Bouts, based on a lost composition by the master himself. Among fifteen other versions of the subject, it is set apart from these by the panoramic landscape background that was probably not part of the prototype. The pink in the Child’s hand invests the painting with a double meaning, alluding to Mary’s sorrow over the Child’s earthly fate and the heavenly reunion of the two, thereby encapsulating his messianic role in the salvation of humankind and the Virgin’s sorrows and joys as the mother of Christ.

Artist

Dieric Bouts

Date

1475–99

Medium

Oil on wood

Department

European Paintings

Credit line

The Jack and Belle Linsky Collection, 1982