Lot 1009 Dα

This work depicts the Virgin standing with the Christ Child on Her arm in a niche flanked by two columns. She looks down at the Child and hands Him a fruit, which He grasps with His right hand whilst holding a posy in His left. The architecture behind the Virgin opens up onto a view of a wooded landscape, and we see an angel hovering above Her holding a cross as a symbol of Christ's sacrifice.
This devotional work was painted by Adriaen Isenbrant, one of the leading painters in Bruges in the first half of the 16th century. The Virgin's facial features and downcast eyes are comparable to other paintings by this artist, such as his “Rest on the Flight into Egypt” (Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent), the “Seated Madonna and Child” (Museo Lazaro-Galdiano, Madrid), or the Van de Velde Diptych (Musée royaux des Beaux-Art de Belgique, Brussels). Alongside stylistic similarities in the painting, the underdrawing also uses the same pouncing technique as other works by Isenbrant (see the expertise by Prof. Dr. Maximilaan Martens, Ghent).
The present composition is based on a painting of the Virgin and Child by Gerard David, which is housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (see illus. 1, inv. no. 1977.1.1). In David's painting, the Virgin stands surrounded by angels in a niche that opens up onto a view of a city in the background. In comparison to the preceding work, Isenbrant has modernised the architecture, replacing Gothic forms with those of the Renaissance.

BU:
Illus. 1: Gerard David, The Virgin with Child and Four Angels, © Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York