page_title: Virgin and Child (after van der Goes?)
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Virgin and Child (after van der Goes?) / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: Detail of the Virgin and Child triptych
context_page_description: Virgin and Child is a small c. 1485–90 double hinged oil on oak triptych with a central panel by a follower or workshop member of the Flemish painter Hugo van der Goes or Gerard David. The work is currently held in the National Gallery, London with the central panel in its original frame. The central image is a tightly cropped and intimate portrayal Mary cradling the infant Jesus, who plays with a red rosary tied around his neck.
  The work is a composite, probably assembled in the 19th century by an art dealer, with the framed central panel inserted into an altarpiece triptych which probably dates from c. 1500. The center panel bears evidence that it was slightly planed down to fit into the frame. It is probably based on a then popular and heavily copied Flemallesque Virgin and Child, the original of which is lost but known through numerous paintings and woodcuts.
  The center panel has been attributed to a number of Early Netherlandish painters, including Rogier van der Weyden, Gerard David and van der Goes. It was completed at a time when the copying or adapting of works by the great Netherlandish painters was commonplace and a thriving, well paid industry.
context_section_description: Both figures in the central panel have gilded halos. Mary is shown as be very young, likely no older than 15. She has blue green-eyes and reddish blond hair which is decorated with a green striped headband studded with an ornament jeweled with a ruby, two pearls and a diamond. She wears a long blue mantle which veils her face and drapes over her purple under-dress and blue fur-lined dress. The fur line extends beneath the child. The child has short blond hair and blue eyes, and is cradled by Mary's hand; her long fine fingers are shown reaching under his legs and across the lower chest. He is shown sitting on white cloth, toying with a string of red coral rosary beads which cast a shadow over his chest. The beads are strung on a green chord which drapes over his shoulder. At the time coral was used to protect children from evil spirits.
  Areas of the central panel have faded or are damaged, especially around the child's cheek, and across the Virgin's veil. As a result, it was heavily over-painted before acquired by Layard. All three were cleaned and restored by the National Gallery in 1957, when most of the over-paint was removed.
  While the background of the center panel is painted in solid black the black of the outer wings is mixed with red earth. The reverse of each panel is coated with thick matt black, although they had been at some early point layered with white paint. The lack of any background detail is unusual for paintings of the era, but along with the close cropping, reinforces the intimacy of the panel. In addition, it removes the figures from any earthly context, and further reinforces their idealised and sacred presentation, they seem far removed from our own world. The single oak boards of the outer wings are both of vertical grain, and it is likely that the hinges are original 1500 c. They wings are still shuttable via an outer hook which fits with a ring on the back of the left panel. Both nail and hook seem to be original.
caption: Detail of the central panel showing the faces of Mary and the child Jesus.
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