Virgin and Child
Workshop of Rogier van der Weyden (Netherlandish, c. 1399-1464)
c. 1460
- Medium
- Oil on panel
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- 38.4 × 28.3 cm (15 1/8 × 11 1/8 in.); Framed: 45.8 × 34.3 × 5.1 cm (18 × 13 1/2 × 2 in.)
- Culture
- Belgium
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Credit line
- Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
This tender painting is an image type known as a Madonna lactans, which depicts the Virgin Mary nursing the infant Jesus, highlighting her role as nurturer and intercessor between the human and divine realms. To convey the close connection between mother and son, Rogier van der Weyden exploited the qualities of oil paint, a highly manipulable medium that can be blended while wet. This characteristic allows for realistic modeling through seamless transitions of light and shadow, seen most poignantly here in the slight indentations of Mary’s fingers in the infant’s skin where she supports him.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
