Artwork
The Virgin
The Virgin is an oil painting. It dates from 1500 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The work is a religious painting from 1500 that depicts Mary as its main subject. Executed in tempera and oil paint on wood with gold leaf, the piece belongs to the genre of religious art. As a representation of the Virgin, the painting serves a devotional function consistent with the iconography of the period, focusing entirely on the figure of Mary.
Technique & Style
The work is a panel painting combining tempera and oil, executed on wood with applied gold leaf, consistent with late fifteenth-century Catalan practice.
The work is a panel painting combining tempera and oil, executed on wood with applied gold leaf, consistent with late fifteenth-century Catalan practice.
Handling shows fine brushwork in the modeling of the Virgin’s face and drapery, with delicate highlights over a burnished gold ground. The flesh tones are subtly modulated, while the Virgin’s mantle employs layered glazes to achieve depth. The gold leaf background is tooled with incised patterns, a common decorative feature in contemporaneous Iberian devotional panels.
No specific condition notes are provided in the cited sources.
History & Provenance
The work is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, where it is accessioned as a gift of Mr. and Mrs. Walter C. Baker (57.139).
It has been exhibited at the museum in the 2018 presentation “Collecting and Provenance: The Walters Collection of Early Italian Paintings,” where its status as a Catalan work of c.1500 was discussed in relation to the Baker bequest.
Context
The work titled The Virgin, created circa 1500 by a Spanish (Catalan) painter, depicts the Virgin Mary and is classified as a religious painting made of wood. It was executed in tempera and oil paint with gold leaf, measuring 47.6 cm in height and 40.3 cm in width. The piece belongs to the religious art genre and is part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection, acquired through the bequest of Mr. and Mrs. Walter C. Baker.
Overview
The work titled “The Virgin” is a painted panel on wood, portraying a seated woman in a dark robe and white head covering. She rests on the ground with her hands clasped, her expression calm and slightly smiling. The composition is set against a warm, golden background that frames a rocky landscape populated with trees and vegetation, lending depth to the scene.
Artist & collection
