The support is a single vertically grained oak plank which has been planed down to a thickness of approx. 0.4 cm and cradled. A small strip may have been cut off at the bottom. Dendrochronology has shown that the youngest heartwood ring was formed in 1479. The panel could have been ready for use by 1490, but a date in or after 1504 is more likely. The white ground was probably applied when the panel was in the original frame, as there are unpainted edges of approx. 0.8 cm at the top and bottom; on the left and right sides these have probably been filled and overpainted. Infrared reflectography shows an underdrawing in a dry medium, probably black chalk, for the figures of the Virgin and Child. The underdrawing is sketchy and tentative in the Child’s body, notably in the position of the feet (fig. b). The background on either side of the gold brocade cloth appears to have been completely overpainted in grey. The flesh colours and the Virgin’s blue cloth were painted rather thickly. Mordant gilding was used for the inscription on the blue garment.

Fair. There are several horizontal cracks, probably caused by the cradle. The background, which is partly covered by the frame, has been painted over in grey.

…; collection Cornelis Hoogendijk (1866-1911), The Hague, before 1902;¹¹Henkels 1993, p. 161-62. from whom on loan to the museum (inv. no. SK-C-825), 1907-11; donated to the museum from Hoogendijk’s estate, 1912; on loan to the Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, since 2002

Object number: SK-A-2552

Credit line: Gift of the heirs of C. Hoogendijk, The Hague

The composition of this Virgin with the reclining Child at her bare breast, the ‘Madonna lactans’ type, is probably based on a model by Rogier van der Weyden. The prototype is his ‘Virgin and Child’ in Tournai.²²Musée des Beaux-Arts; illustrated in ENP II, 1967, no. 29, pl. 50; see De Vos 1971, pp. 126, 129-30. In that painting the Virgin is holding her breast with her hand and the Child is more in a seated position. There are 30 versions of this composition, of which the one in Brussels (fig. a) seems to be one of the earliest.³³For those versions see De Vos 1971, pp. 136-27, figs. 71-76, pp. 139-41. In some of them the Child is suckling, but that is not the case here. In this panel, in which the Virgin and Child are set against a red and gold brocade cloth that is partly overpainted with grey, the soft facial features of the Virgin differ from those of the type derived from Rogier as seen in most of the other versions. The Child also departs from the model, particularly as regards the position of its feet. It is clear from the sketchy underdrawing that the artist sought a different position for them, with the foot nearest the viewer covering the other one (fig. b). Further comparison of the motifs in the gold brocade might provide clues as to the workshop where the painting was made. De Vos assumes that it was executed in Bruges around 1500.⁴⁴De Vos 1971, p. 140. The Virgin’s softer features do indeed point to Bruges, and the dendrochronology confirms the date of c. 1500.
JPFK

Winkler 1913, p. 72 (as copy after Rogier van der Weyden, c. 1500); Friedländer II, 1924, pp. 131, no. 108n (as copy after Rogier van der Weyden, c. 1500); ENP II, 1967, pp. 83-84, no. 108n; De Vos 1971, pp. 139-40, no. 8 (as Bruges, c. 1500); Van Wegen 2005, pp. 26-27

1912, p. 340, no. 340b (as Flemish, after Rogier van der Weyden); 1934, p. 25, no. 340b; 1976, p. 688, no. A 2552 (as southern Netherlands)

J.P. Filedt Kok, 2010, 'anonymous, The Virgin and Child, Southern Netherlands, c. 1500', in J.P. Filedt Kok (ed.), Early Netherlandish Paintings, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20027023