| Madonna and Child Playing With the Veil | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Jan Gossaert (Mabuse) |
| Year | 1520–1530 |
| Type | Oil on wood |
| Dimensions | 25.4 cm× 18.3 cm(10.0 in× 7.2 in) |
| Location | Mauritshuis, The Hague |
The Madonna and Child Playing With the Veil, is a devotional painting finished around 1520-1530 by the Flemish High Renaissance painter Jan Gossaert. It is housed in the Mauritshuis museum of The Hague, Netherlands.
This work is one of the most copied works of Gossaert (Mabuse) with over twenty known copies dated to within a decade of the (unspecified) original, and depicts the Virgin with the Christ child with both arms above His head, playing with Mary's veil. Many copies were documented by Max Jakob Friedländer. [1]
Most of the known copies follow the original quite closely, but include different objects in the foreground and background. Most copies were probably made for a specific church or mecenas, though this information has often been lost. According to the RKD, a copy hangs in the Palencia Cathedral. [2] This natural pose of Christ playing with the veil seems to have become quite popular, and two copies are known that have been done by the contemporary painter Pauwels Coeke van Aelst, the bastard half-brother of Pieter van Aelst. [3] [4]
This devotional subject is not to be confused with other devotional Mabuse Madonnas (or the one at the National Gallery which is also dated 1520 [5] ) posed without a veil, that includes a disguised portrait. An example is the one identified as Anna van Bergen, the wife of Adolf of Burgundy, and that was also copied many times. [6] [7] A similar Mabuse Madonna without a veil that was also a disguised portrait was made for Jean Carondelet in the Diptich of Jean Carandelet and his wife that hangs today in the Louvre, but was painted for the Besançon Cathedral. According to Van Mander in 1604, there were many copies of Mabuse Madonnas to be found in Middelburg. [7]
Lucas van Leyden, also named either Lucas Hugensz or Lucas Jacobsz, was a Dutch painter and printmaker in engraving and woodcut. Lucas van Leyden was among the first Dutch exponents of genre painting and was a very accomplished engraver.
Jan Gossaert was a French-speaking painter from the Low Countries also known as Jan Mabuse or Jennyn van Hennegouwe (Hainaut), as he called himself when he matriculated in the Guild of Saint Luke, at Antwerp, in 1503. He was one of the first painters of Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting to visit Italy and Rome, which he did in 1508–09, and a leader of the style known as Romanism, which brought elements of Italian Renaissance painting to the north, sometimes with a rather awkward effect. He achieved fame across at least northern Europe, and painted religious subjects, including large altarpieces, portraits and mythological subjects.
Geertgen tot Sint Jans, also known as Geertgen van Haarlem, Gerrit van Haarlem, Gerrit Gerritsz, Gheertgen, Geerrit, Gheerrit, or any other diminutive form of Gerald, was an Early Netherlandish painter from the northern Low Countries in the Holy Roman Empire. No contemporary documentation of his life has been traced, and the earliest published account of his life and work is from 1604, in Karel van Mander's Schilder-boeck.
Jan Mostaert was a Dutch Renaissance painter who is known mainly for his religious subjects and portraits. One of his most famous creations was the Landscape with an Episode from the Conquest of America.
Pieter Coecke van Aelst or Pieter Coecke van Aelst the Elder was a Flemish painter, sculptor, architect, author and designer of woodcuts, goldsmith's work, stained glass and tapestries. His principal subjects were Christian religious themes. He hailed from the Duchy of Brabant, worked in Antwerp and Brussels, and was appointed court painter to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.
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Joos de Beer was an Early Dutch painter from Utrecht.
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Claes Jacobsz van der Heck, was a Dutch Golden Age painter.
Lucas Cornelisz de Kock or Kunst (1495–1552) was a Dutch Renaissance painter active in the Tudor court.
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Reinier Boitet, was a Dutch publisher and writer who updated Dirk van Bleiswijk's History of Delft in 1729.
Lambert van Noort (1520–1571) was a Flemish Renaissance painter.
Herman van der Mast was a Dutch Renaissance painter from the Netherlands.
Saint Luke Painting the Virgin is an oil on canvas painting by the Dutch Golden Age artist Maarten van Heemskerck, from 1532. It is held in the Frans Hals Museum, in Haarlem.
