Virgin and Child with Four Angels

Virgin and Child with Four Angels

Virgin and Child with Four Angels

Artist:
Gerard David (Netherlandish, Oudewater ca. 1455–1523 Bruges)
Date:
ca. 1510–15
Medium:
Oil on wood
Dimensions:24 7/8 x 15 3/8 in. (63.2 x 39.1 cm)
Classification:
Paintings
Credit Line:
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, 1977
Accession Number:
1977.1.1

Gerard David, the leading painter in Bruges in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, followed the legacy of Jan van Eyck. In this painting he has taken the Virgin and Child from his predecessor’s well-known Virgin and Child at the Fountain, but modernized the composition by placing the figures in a grand arched porch flanked by columns with Italianate capitals and against the backdrop of contemporary Bruges. A Carthusian monk is seen strolling and reading in the enclosed garden, suggesting that the painting was linked to the former monastery at Genadedael, just outside the city walls of Bruges.

Provenance
by descent to private collection, Madrid (until about 1940; sold to Linares); [Abelardo Linares S.A., Madrid, from about 1940–62; sold to Wrightsman]; Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, New York (1962–77; cat., 1973, no. 7)

Copyright Image
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