Virgin and Child

The Madonna supports the torso of the infant Christ who distractedly plays with the clasp of a book. This unknown master has borrowed these two figures from a painting of the same subject by Rogier van der Weyden, one of the most influential painters of the fifteenth century (Henry E. Huntington Library, California). Rogier’s innovations in religious iconography, and his exquisitely detailed and emotionally expressive works, inspired artists across Europe. Here, the artist has focused on the linear rather than the emotive qualities, and replaced Rogier’s gold background with an expansive landscape, perhaps at the request of a patron.