Lot 1008 Dα

The development of this work's composition can be traced back to a painting by Joos van Cleve from 1520, which is now kept in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (inv.-no. 32.100.57). Van Cleve based his depiction of the seated Virgin on Jan van Eyck's famous Lucca Madonna (Frankfurt a. M., Städel Museum, inv.-no. 944). He enriched the composition by the inclusion of the figure of Joseph on the left edge of the work, an addition inspired in turn by Rogier van der Weyden. In a depiction of the Holy Family by Joos van Cleve from circa 1520 kept in the National Gallery in London (inv. no. 2606), he reiterates the “Maria Lactans” motif, but the Child is depicted standing, as in the present work.
This composition by Joos van Cleve achieved exceptional popularity and was reiterated numerous times by the master and his workshop in the years following 1525. The reason for the work's popularity may lie in the growing demand for private devotional images in the 16th century, the depiction of the tender relationship between Mother and Child, or the increased veneration of Joseph at the time it was painted. Each version of the composition was painted with minor variations. In the present work, which shows most similarity to a slightly smaller version in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg (inv. no. 411), the Virgin sits before a sumptuous damask cloth of the kind woven in Siena around 1500. Joseph is depicted before a dark, monochrome background, reading from the magnificate in the gospel of Luke. The still life on the stone ledge in the foreground provided additional opportunities for variation. In the present work, we see a cut lemon, a knife, and an aquilegia sprig symbolising the trinity.