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A woman sits by a window breastfeeding a baby.

A light-skinned, red-haired woman holds a nude light-skinned baby on her lap, cradling him in her right hand. She wears a black hooded cloak and a red dress that exposes her right breast, which she pushes toward the baby’s mouth. The baby gazes upward and smiles. The woman looks down at him. Both woman and child have delicate features, with heavy eyelids and small pointed chins. They sit in front of a red, gold, and green damask panel. Behind them to the right is a small window with a view of a castle surrounded by mountains and trees.

Gallery Text

Diptychs played an important devotional role in the Netherlands. The panels hinged together here are from two different workshops. The earlier one, showing the Virgin and Child (1906.6.A)., is based directly on a prototype by Rogier van der Weyden. Soon after its creation, it was paired with an image of a donor (1906.6.B) — identified by an epitaph on the reverse as Joos van der Burch, a court official — who is accompanied by Saint Simon of Jerusalem. A prayer written on a banderole rises from his clasped hands toward a window, through which we see the Crucifixion set in a landscape. Technical evidence suggests that the image was originally commissioned by Joos’s son, Simon van der Burch, who had himself portrayed alongside his patron saint. Simon’s likeness was later painted over with that of his father, perhaps as a demonstration of filial piety.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1906.6.A
People
Follower of Rogier van der Weyden, Netherlandish (c. 1399 - 1464)
Previously attributed to Rogier van der Weyden, Netherlandish (c. 1399 - 1464)
Title
The Virgin and Child
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
c. 1480
Places
Creation Place: Europe, Netherlands, Bruges
Culture
Netherlandish
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/231968

Location

Location
Level 2, Room 2500, European Art, 13th–16th century, Art and Image in Europe
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on redwood panel
Dimensions
image: 55 x 35.5 cm (21 5/8 x 14 in.)
with modern cork strip around edge: 56.6 x 36.8 cm (22 5/16 x 14 1/2 in.)
frame: 66.2 x 44.4 x 7.2 cm (26 1/16 x 17 1/2 x 2 13/16 in.)
frame (hinged with 1906.6.B): 66.2 x 88.8 x 7.2 cm (26 1/16 x 34 15/16 x 2 13/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
George W. Harris, bequest; to Harvard College, 1906

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of George W. Harris in memory of John A. Harris (to Harvard College)
Accession Year
1906
Object Number
1906.6.A
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Reports of Art Museums and Societies, American Art Annual, ed. Florence N. Levy (1907-1908), Vol. VI, p. 143
  • Style and Technique: Their Interrelation in Western European Painting, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1936), no. 20, p. 28, pl. VIII
  • Charles Werner Haxthausen, The Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University, Abbeville Press (New York, NY, 1980), p. 55, repr.
  • Kristin A. Mortimer and William G. Klingelhofer, Harvard University Art Museums: A Guide to the Collections, Harvard University Art Museums and Abbeville Press (Cambridge and New York, 1986), no. 362, p. 305, repr.
  • Edgar Peters Bowron, European Paintings Before 1900 in the Fogg Art Museum: A Summary Catalogue including Paintings in the Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990), pp. 133, 169, repr. b/w cat. no. 96
  • Cyriel Stroo, Pascale Syfer-d'Olne, and Roel Slachmuylders, The Flemish Primitives, Brepols (Brussels, Belgium, 1996-2006), vol. I, pp. 167-173
  • Andrea Pearson, "Personal Worship, Gender, and the Devotional Portrait Diptych", The Sixteenth Century Journal (spring 2000), vol. XXXI, no. 1, pp. 99-122, repr. p. 119
  • Peter van den Brink, "The Art of Copying: Copying and Serial Production of Paintings in the Low Countries in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries", Bonnefantenmuseum / Musees Royaux des Beaux-Arts (Maastricht, Netherlands / Brussels, Belgium, 2001), p. 15
  • Ron Spronk, "Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: The Early Years of Conservation and Technical Examination of Netherlandish Paintings of the Fogg Art Museum", Recent Developments in the Technical Examination of Early Netherlandish Painting, ed. Molly Faries, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2003), pp. 39-56, repr. p. 41 as fig. 3
  • Dr. Maryan W. Ainsworth, "'À la façon grèce': The Encounter of Northern Renaissance Artists wtih Byzantine Icons", Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261-1557), ed. Helen Evans, Metropolitan Museum of Art / Yale University Press (New York, NY / New Haven, CT, and London, 2004), pp. 545-555, p. 554, repr. as fig. 17.15
  • Andrea Pearson, Envisioning Gender in Burgundian Devotional Art, 1350-1530, Ashgate Publishing (Hampshire, England, 2005), p. 78, repr. in b/w p. 79; checklist no. 12, p. 196
  • John Oliver Hand and Ron Spronk, ed., Essays in Context: Unfolding the Netherlandish Diptych, Harvard University Art Museums/Yale University Press (Cambridge, MA, 2006), pp. 24, 68, p. 58 note 19, p. 248 cat. no. 40
  • John Oliver Hand, Catherine A. Metzger, and Ron Spronk, Prayers and Portraits: Unfolding the Netherlandish Diptych, exh. cat., Yale University Press (New Haven, CT, and London, 2006), p. 22; no. 40, pp. 264-271, repr. in color with verso, details, IR,and cross-sections
  • Pieter Donche, "Joos van der Burch (+ 1497) en de raadsels rond zijn diptiek", Vlaamse Stam, Familiekunde Vlaanderen (Antwerp, January 2008), vol. 44, no. 1, pp. 61-110, repr. as fig. 1 on p. 62
  • Trinita Kennedy and John Nolan, A Divine Light: Northern Renaissance Paintings from the Bob Jones University Museum & Gallery, exh. cat., Frist Art Museum (Nashville, 2011), p. 29, fig. 15
  • Stefano Benelli, La stoffa del XV secolo nella Capsella di Maso di Bartolomeo, Aión Edizioni (Florence, Italy, 2011), pp. 22-23, 25-27, 90, repr. as pl. 21
  • Douglas Brine, Pious Memories: The Wall-Mounted Memorial in the Burgundian Netherlands, Brill Academic Publishers (Boston) (Boston, 2015), pp. 51-52; repr. as fig. 22 p. 51

Exhibition History

  • Style and Technique: Their Interrelation in Western European Painting, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 06/01/1936 - 12/31/1936
  • Northern European Art from 1450 to 1550, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 08/13/1994 - 02/05/1995
  • Prayers & Portraits: Unfolding the Netherlandish Diptych, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 11/12/2006 - 02/04/2007; Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp, 03/03/2007 - 05/27/2007
  • Re-View: S422-423 Western Art of the Middle Ages & Renaissance, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 08/16/2008 - 06/18/2011
  • 32Q: 2500 Renaissance, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Collection Highlights
  • Google Art Project

Related Works

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu