Virgin and Child with Four Angels
Gerard David, 1510
Virgin and Child with Four Angels is a small oil-on-panel painting by Gerard David, a Early Netherlandish painter, probably dated to around 1510. The Virgin holds the infant Jesus while two angels above her place a crown on her head as Queen of Heaven, and two more angels at either side play a harp and a lute. The scene unfolds beneath a Gothic arch in a walled garden, a setting meant to suggest Mary's purity and virginity, with a view of Bruges behind. The work seems to have been made for private devotion and was probably the central panel of a triptych or small altarpiece that was later separated. David drew heavily on Jan van Eyck's Virgin and Child at a Fountain, though he made significant changes, adding two angels and placing the figures in a recognisable contemporary city. Its most striking feature is the humanity of the figures: rather than remote, distant deities, mother and son appear affectionate and closely bonded. Fine hair strands, folded drapery and the tiny gold stitching on the red gown reveal the painter's meticulous technique.
- Painter
- Gerard David
- Date
- 1510
- Medium
- oil paint, panel
- Dimensions
- 63 × 39 cm
- Museum
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
- Movement
- Early Netherlandish painting
- Genre
- religious art
- Depicts
- Bruges, crown, lute, angel, Jesus Christ, musical instrument, Mary, harp
More works by Gerard David
