Lot 1005 D α

The composition is taken from the famous Van der Paele Altarpiece painted by Jan van Eyck in 1436 for the Saint Donatian church in Bruges (Groeningemuseum, inv. 0.161). Here however, only the Virgin and Child are represented within a setting that has been adapted to the Renaissance style, which was in favour at the time of the panel's execution in the early sixteenth century.
The Madonna is presented in a full frontal view sitting before a brocade canopy. She wears a red cloak hemmed with jewels over a blue dress equally adorned with precious stones. The Child is laying on a white cloth on Her lap holding a parrot with His right hand and offering a small bouquet of flowers to His Mother with the other one. Two elegant pillars decorated with Renaissance ornaments are displayed on a balustrade in front of the figures.
The colours of the present panel correspond closely to the model, up to the smallest detail, indicating that the painter must have worked directly after Van Eyck's original. Moreover, examination under infrared reflectography reveals an abundant underdrawing which testify to a free copying technique without the use of any transfer method. While the young infant Christ's face is fairly close to its 15th century model, the Virgin's features are much less hieratic, and Her head has a more round and less angular shape. Some details, like the parrot's much longer tail, are the copyist's own invention.
The group of the Virgin and Child was much appreciated in the first quarter of the 16th century during the "Van Eyck revival". Many Bruges painters like Adriaen Isenbrant, Ambrosius Benson, Jan Provost and other anonymous painters have produced similar versions. The composition reduced to the two holy figures indicate that at that time they were used for private devotion.
Dated on stylistic grounds to around 1510 by Max Friendländer in 1924, this has recently been confirmed by a dendrochronological analysis, meaning that the present panel must be one of the earliest of its kind preserved today.