page_title: Diptych of Philip de Croÿ with The Virgin and Child
section_title: Virgin and Child
hierarchical_section_title: Diptych of Philip de Croÿ with The Virgin and Child / Description / Virgin and Child
caption_attribution_description: Madonna and Child Rogier van der Weyden (Crop)
context_page_description: The Diptych of Philip de Croÿ with The Virgin and Child consists of a pair of small oil-on-oak panels painted c. 1460 by the Netherlandish artist Rogier van der Weyden. While the authorship and dating of both works are not in doubt, it is believed but not proven that they were created as wings of a devotional diptych and that at some unknown time the panels were broken apart. A diptych panel fitting the description of the Mary wing was described in a 1629 inventory of paintings owned by Alexandre d'Arenberg, a descendant of Philip I de Croÿ. Both have been approximately dated to 1460 and are now in Antwerp and San Marino, CA respectively. The reverse of de Croÿ's portrait is inscribed with the family crest and the title used by the sitter from 1454 to 1461.
  The right hand panel depicts Philip I de Croÿ, chamberlain to Philip the Good and comte de Chimay from 1472 until his death, possibly at battle, in 1482. De Croÿ would have been around 25 at the time of the portrait, and the style of his haircut has been used to approximately date the work.
context_section_description: In the early 15th century Mary grew in importance as possible intercessor with God with members of the Catholic faith. The concept of purgatory as an intermediary state that each human soul had to pass through before they were admitted to heaven, was at its height. It was thought that the length each person would need to suffer in limbo was proportional to their display of devotion while on earth. Prayer was the most obvious means of decreasing time in limbo, while the more well off substituted by commissioning churches or extensions or artworks, or devotional portraits. Mary, although under represented in the gospels, developed a cult that gathered from the 13th century, mostly built on the idea of the Immaculate Conception and her ascension into heaven. Thus, in a culture that venerated the possession of relics as a means to bring the earthly closer to the divine, Mary could have left no bodily relics, thus assuming a special position between heaven and humanity.
  The veneration that developed around her in this period lead to a high demand for donor portraits with the commissioner shown in devotion. Van der Weyden responded with half length Marian portraits which echoed in style and colour the Byzantine icons then popular in Italy as "miracle" working paintings. The format became extremely popular in the north, and his innovation is a major contributing reason for the emergence of Marian and after more general devotional diptychs as a lasting format of Early Netherlandish painting.
  Mary is shown against a gilded background, holding the infant Christ's hand. She wears a dark hooded cloak or veil over a red dress. The infant stands unsteadily on a highly decorated and embroidered red and yellow cushion. He is shown as restless and energetic, toying with the clasps of a prayer book. Both figures have golden halos which radiate outwards as if beams of light. Mary shares many of the idealised facial features seen in late period van der Weyden depictions of the Madonna; she has olive eyes, a high forehead, and symmetrical, arched eyebrows.
  The painting first emerged in 1892 as part of Henry Willett's collection in Brighton. It passed through the Kann collection in Paris, and is today on display at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California.
caption: Crop of the Virgin and Child panel, showing the halo built from golden beams of light radiating outwards from his head
exif: {}