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Notes
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This puzzling picture of the Virgin and Child is often called the 'Firescreen Madonna', after the large wicker firescreen behind the Virgin's head. We do not know who it was made for, or where or how it was used. We are not even sure how it originally looked: it was extensively restored in the nineteenth century.Although they are biblical figures, the artist has placed the Virgin and Christ inside a wealthy, even palatial, Netherlandish home. The Virgin is dressed as a queen. She wears a blue overdress over a linen shift, open at the neck to show her blue-veined breasts. Wisely, she has spread a white cloth over her knees to protect her clothes from the naked, wriggling child. A tiny hook at its corner would have allowed it to be hung up to dry.
Title
The Virgin and Child before a Firescreen
Date
about 1440
Medium
Oil with egg tempera on oak with walnut additions
Measurements
H 63.4 x W 48.5 cm
Accession number
NG2609
Acquisition method
Salting Bequest, 1910
Work type
Painting
