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The Virgin Seated at the Foot of a Tree
Jan Gossaert (Flemish, c. 1475/78–1532)
1522
- Medium
- engraving
- Classification
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 12 x 8.5 cm (4 3/4 x 3 3/8 in.)
- Culture
- Flanders
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Prints
- Credit line
- Dudley P. Allen Fund
- 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 Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
Jan Gossaert, a court painter from the southern Netherlands, knew Albrecht Dürer’s prints early on (having used some motifs in his paintings) but didn’t produce engravings himself until after Dürer’s 1520–21 journey to the Netherlands. Though unclear if they met in person, Dürer visited Gossaert’s town and brought engravings for trade and gifting. This engraving, the first Gossaert ever made, references Dürer’s many Virgin Mary and Christ child engravings without copying any one composition. Gossaert adopted Dürer’s tablet with date and monogram. The uneven execution confirms that it was an experimental first attempt at the technique.
