{"data":{"id":16295,"api_model":"artworks","api_link":"https:\/\/api.artic.edu\/api\/v1\/artworks\/16295","is_boosted":false,"title":"Virgin and Child","alt_titles":null,"thumbnail":{"lqip":"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhBAAFAPQAAF8rHWQzHkI3ImQsIllHJVtPN2BHLGVKKWFOLXJELWpPMW1XNGFVPnRTPnFnR3FuUnp+XoFXPINyS56HZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACH5BAAAAAAALAAAAAAEAAUAAAURIHEUjxAxUDA4CNBMiSEtSggAOw==","width":3313,"height":4277,"alt_text":"A work made of oil on panel."},"main_reference_number":"1933.1050","has_not_been_viewed_much":false,"boost_rank":null,"date_start":1480,"date_end":1490,"date_display":"c. 1485","date_qualifier_title":"","date_qualifier_id":null,"artist_display":"Hans Memling (Netherlandish, c. 1430\u20131494)","place_of_origin":"Netherlands","description":"<p>This panel and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/artworks\/79777\/portrait-of-a-donor-recto-saint-anthony-of-padua-verso\">a portrait of a man in prayer<\/a> once hinged together to form a diptych, with the <em>Virgin and Child<\/em> on the left and the portrait of a man facing her on the right. The condition of the portrait is very poor, while its reverse\u2014featuring an image of Saint Anthony of Padua\u2014is well preserved. It is painted in <em>grisaille<\/em>, a technique that mimics sculpture through monochromatic shades of beige and gray. This outer panel would have been visible when the diptych was closed and served as a transition point between the earthly setting outside the diptych into the sacred space within, painted in colorful, lavish detail. Visual cues like Anthony\u2019s sandaled toe stepping on the edge of the frame and the reflection of two children\u2014perhaps the donor\u2019s\u2014in the convex mirror behind the Virgin reinforce the paintings\u2019 role as an intermediary meeting point reached through prayer.<\/p>\n","short_description":null,"dimensions":"Framed: 41.1 \u00d7 33.4 cm (16 3\/16 \u00d7 13 1\/8 in.)","dimensions_detail":[{"depth":null,"width":33,"height":41,"diameter":null,"clarification":"Framed"}],"medium_display":"Oil on panel","inscriptions":null,"credit_line":"Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection","catalogue_display":null,"publication_history":"Henri Hymans, \u201cNotes sur quelques oeuvres d\u2019art conserv\u00e9es\nen Espagne,\u201d Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 3rd ser., 12 (1894), pp. 159\u201360. \n\nThe Art Institute of Chicago, Handbook of Sculpture, Architecture, Paintings, and Drawings, vol. 2, August 1920, p. 63. \n\nMax J. Friedl\u00e4nder, \u201cAbout Some of Hans Memling\u2019s Pictures in the United States,\u201d Art in America 8 (1920), p. 115. \n\nMax J. Friedl\u00e4nder, Von Eyck bis Bruegel: Studien zur Geschichte der niederl\u00e4ndischen Malerei, 2nd ed., Berlin, 1921, p. 188. \n\nThe Art Institute of Chicago, Handbook of Sculpture, Architecture, and Paintings, May 1922, p. 72. \n\nThe Art Institute of Chicago, A Guide to the Paintings in the Permanent Collection, 1925, p. 160, no. 2059. \n\nRose Mary Fischkin, \u201cMartin A. Ryerson Collection of Paintings and Sculpture, XIII to XVII Century, Loaned to The Art Institute of Chicago,\u201d unpub. MS, 1926, Ryerson Library, The Art Institute of Chicago, pp. 73\u201374.\n\nMax J. Friedl\u00e4nder, Die altniederl\u00e4ndische Malerei, vol. 6, Berlin, 1928, pp. 126, 132, nos. 50, 92, pl. 31 (1933.1050); rev. English ed., Early Netherlandish Painting, Brussels and Leiden, 1971, pp. 52, 56, nos. 50, 92, pl. 98. \n\nH[ans] V[ollmer], in Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden K\u00fcnstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, vol. 24, Leipzig, 1930, p. 376. \n\nThe Art Institute of Chicago, A Guide to the Paintings in the Permanent Collection, 1932, p. 181. \n\nAlfred M. Frankfurter, \u201cPaintings by Hans Memling in American Collections,\u201d\nFine Arts 18, 4 (1932), p. 22. \n\nG. W. H. \u201cLa Vie artistique aux \u00c9tats Unis,\u201d Beaux-arts, n.s., 72, 23 (1933), p. 6 (ill.). \n\n\u201cThe Century of Progress Exhibition of the Fine Arts,\u201d AIC Bulletin 27 (1933),\npp. 60\u201361 (ill. 1933.1050). \n\nAlfred M. Frankfurter, \u201cArt in the Century of Progress,\u201d Fine Arts 20, 2 (1933), pp. 21 (ill. 1933.1050), 60. \n\nDaniel Catton Rich, \u201cDie Ausstellung \u2018F\u00fcnf Jahrhunderte der Fr\u00fchmalerei in Chicago,\u2019\u201d Pantheon 6 (1933), p. 376. \n\nDaniel Catton Rich, \u201cThe Paintings of Martin A. Ryerson,\u201d Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 27 (1933), p. 11. \n\nHenry S. Francis, \u201cA Madonna and Child by Hans Memling,\u201d Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 21 (1934), pp. 138 (ill. 1933.1050), 142, 143. \n\nHans Tietze, Meisterwerke europ\u00e4ische Malerei in Amerika, Vienna 1935, pp. 132 (ill. 1933.1050), 334, no. 133b.\n\nJulius Held, \u201cA Diptych by Memling,\u201d Burlington Magazine 68 (1936), pp. 176\u201379, pls. A\u2013B. \n\n\u201cMemling\u2019s Madonna,\u201d Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 35 (1941), p. 116 (ill. 1953.467; cover, ill. 1933.1050). \n\nThomas Bodkin, Dismembered Masterpieces: A Plea for Their Reconstruction by International Action, London, 1945, p. 29. \n\nThe Art Institute of Chicago, A Picture Book: Masterpieces of Painting, XV and XVI Centuries in the Collections of The Art Institute of Chicago, 1946, pp. 6\u20138 (ill. 1933.1050). \n\n\u201cThe  Face of Christ: A Portfolio of His Image through the Ages,\u201d Fortune 33, 1 (1946), p. 143 (ill. 1933.1050). \n\nHarry B. Wehle and Margaretta Salinger, A Catalogue of Early Flemish, Dutch and German Paintings, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1947, p. 71. \n\nHelen Parker, The Christmas Story: Illustrated from the Collections of the Art\nInstitute of Chicago, Chicago, 1949, n.pag. (ill.). \n\n\u201cA Tour of the World of Art in 150 Masterpieces,\u201d Masterpieces 1 (1950), p. 50.\n\nCharles Fabens Kelley, \u201cChicago: Record Years,\u201d Art News 51, 4 (1952), p. 107. \n\nHeinrich Schwarz, \u201cThe Mirror in Art,\u201d Art Quarterly 15 (1952), p. 100. \n\nLeo van Puyvelde, La Peinture flamande au si\u00e8cle des Van Eyck, Paris and New York, 1953, p. 266.\n\nHelen Comstock, \u201cA Memling Diptych Reunited,\u201d Connoisseur\n134 (1954), p. 73 (ill.). \n\nHeinrich Schwarz, \u201cThe Mirror of the Artist and the Mirror of the Devout: Observations on Some Paintings, Drawings and Prints of the Fifteenth Century,\u201d in Studies in the History of Art Dedicated to William E. Suida on His Eightieth Birthday, London, 1959, pp. 99\u2013100. \n\nThe Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection, 1961, pp. 144\u201345 (ill.), 309\u201310. \n\nRoger van Schoute, La Chapelle royale de Grenade, Corpus de la peinture des anciens Pays-Bas m\u00e9ridionaux au quinzi\u00e8me si\u00e8cle, 6, Brussels, 1963, p. 75. \n\nSixten Ringbom, Icon to Narrative: The Rise of the Dramatic Close-up in Fifteenth-Century Devotional Painting, \u00c5bo, 1965 (repr., Doornspijk, 1984), p. 46; 2nd ed., 1984, p. 46 n. 36. \n\nFrederick A. Sweet, \u201cGreat Chicago Collectors,\u201d Apollo 84 (1966), pp. 198\u201399, fig. 24 (1933.1050). \n\nMaria Corti and Giorgio T. Faggin, L\u2019opera completa di Memling, Milan, 1969, no. 28a\u2013c. \n\nJohn Maxon, The Art Institute of Chicago, London, 1970, pp. 28\u201329 (ill.), 283. \n\nJacques Vilain, \u201cL\u2019Autoportrait cach\u00e9 dans la peinture flamande du XVe si\u00e8cle,\u201d\nRevue de l\u2019art, no. 8 (1970), pp. 53, 55 n. 12. \n\nJan Bia_ostocki, \u201cMan and Mirror in Painting: Reality and Transience,\u201d in Studies in Late Medieval and Renaissance Painting in Honor of Millard Meiss, ed. Irving Lavin and John Plummer, vol. 1, New York, 1977, p. 65. \n\nJane B. Friedman, \u201cAn Iconological Examination of the Half-Length Devotional Portrait Diptych in the Netherlands, 1460\u20131530,\u201d Ph.D. diss., University of California, Los Angeles, 1977, pp. 106\u201307, 113\u201315, fig. 25. \n\nThe Art Institute of Chicago, 100 Masterpieces, 1978, pp. 44\u201345, no. 8. \n\nVida Joyce Hull, \u201cHans Memling\u2019s Paintings for the Hospital of Saint John in\nBruges,\u201d Ph.D. diss., Bryn Mawr College, 1979 (New York, 1981), p. 219. \n\nJohn D. Morse, Old Master Paintings in North America, New York, 1979, p. 198. \n\nSusanne B\u00e4umler, \u201cStudien zum Adorationsdiptychon: Entstehung, Fr\u00fchgeschichte und Entwicklung eines privaten Andachtsbildes mit Adorantendarstellung,\u201d Ph.D. diss., Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit\u00e4t, Munich, 1983, pp. 52, 75, 169\u201371, cat. 12. \n\nLarry Silver, The Paintings of Quinten Massys with Catalogue Raisonn\u00e9, Montclair, N.J., 1984, p. 181, pl. 137. \n\nIngrid Verhoeven, \u201cDe chronologie der portretten van Hans Memling,\u201d M.A. thesis, Licentieverhandeling, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 1984\u201385, pp. 115\u201318, figs. 61\u201362. \n\nLarry Silver, \u201cThe \u2018Gothic\u2019 Gossaert: Native and Traditional Elements in a Mabuse Madonna,\u201d Pantheon 45 (1987), pp. 62\u201363, fig. 14. \n\nMarion Grams-Thieme, Lebendige Steine: Studien zur niederl\u00e4ndischen Grisaillemalerei des 15. und fr\u00fchen 16. Jahrhunderts, Cologne, 1988, pp. 234\u201336.\n\nEdwin Buijsen, \u201cThe Iconography of St. Antony of Padua in Flemish Art up to the Counter-Reformation,\u201d Santo 29 (1989), pp. 6\u20137, fig. 4.\n\nColin Eisler, Early Netherlandish Painting: 'The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, London, 1989, p. 111, fig. 6. \n\nMartha Wolff, \u201cAn Image of Compassion: Dieric Bouts\u2019s \u2018Sorrowing Madonna,\u2019\u201d\nAIC Museum Studies 15 (1989), pp. 116\u201317. \n\nAngelica D\u00fclberg, Privatportr\u00e4ts: Geschichte und Ikonologie einer Gattung im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert, Berlin, 1990, pp. 69 n. 391, 164, 259, no. 236, pl. 148. \n\nGuy Bauman and Walter A. Liedtke, Flemish Paintings in America: A Survey of Early Netherlandish and Flemish Paintings in the Public Collections of North America, Antwerp, 1992 , p. 352, nos. 344a\u2013b. \n\nDirk de Vos, Hans Memling: The Complete Works, Antwerp and Ghent, 1994, pp. 220\u201321, 380, no. 55. \nCharles H. Duncan, \u201cMirrors and Reflections in Early Netherlandish Painting,\u201d M.A. thesis, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1994, pp. 57\u201364. \n\nLaura Deborah Gelfand, \u201cFifteenth-Century Netherlandish Devotional Portrait Diptychs: Origins and Function,\u201d Ph.D. diss., Case Western Reserve University, 1994, pp. 107\u201311.\n\nMaximiliaan P. J. Martens, \u201cDe opdrachtgevers van Hans Memling,\u201d in\nHans Memling: Essays, ed. Dirk de Vos, Bruges, 1994, p. 27 n. 112.\n\nBarbara M. Thiemann, Hans Memling: Ein Beitr\u00e4g zum Verst\u00e4ndnis seiner Gestaltungsprinzipien, Frankfurt-am-Main, 1994, pp. 153\u201354. \n\nPaul Mitchell and Lynn Roberts, \u201cFrame,\u201d in Dictionary of Art, vol. 11, 1996, pp. 439\u201340. \n\nBarbara G. Lane, \u201cThe Question of Memling\u2019s Training,\u201d in Memling Studies: Proceedings of the International Colloquium (Bruges, 10\u201312 November, 1994), ed. H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Verougstraete, Roger van Schoute, and Maurits Smeyers, Leuven, 1997, pp. 53\u201370, fig. 6. \n\nH\u00e9l\u00e8ne Verougstraete and Roger van Schoute, \u201cCadres et supports chez Memling,\u201d in Memling Studies, p. 272, fig. 1. \n\nLaura D. Gelfand, \u201cDevotion, Imitation, and Social Aspirations: Fifteenth-Century Bruges and a Memling School Madonna and Child,\u201d Cleveland Studies in the History of Art 5 (2000), p. 13. \n\nTill-Holger Borchert, Lorne Campbell, Paula Nuttall, et al., Memling and the Art of Portraiture, exh. cat., Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, 2005, pp. 52, 57, 70\u201372, 142, 175, figs. 57\u201358, pl. 27. \n\nAndrea Pearson, Envisioning Gender in Burgundian Devotional Art, 1350\u20131530: Experience, Authority, Resistance, Aldershot and Burlington, Vt., 2005, p. 197, no. 15.\n\nSusan Frances Jones in Martha Wolff et al., Northern European and Spanish Paintings before 1600 in the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 2008, pp. 250-59, ill.","exhibition_history":"Madrid, Exposici\u00f3n hist\u00f3rico-Europea, 1892\u201393.5 \n\nArt Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress, 1933, no. 50, pl. 9. \n\nArt Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress, 1934, no. 125. \n\nArt Institute of Chicago, The Christmas Story in Art, 1938\u201339 (no cat.). \n\nArt Institute of Chicago, Masterpiece of the Month, Nov. 1941 (no cat.). \n\nArt Institute of Chicago, The Art of the Edge: European Picture Frames, 1300\u20131900, 1986, no. 34.\n\nThe Art Institute of Chicago, New Light on Old Masters: Research on Northern European and Spanish Paintings before 1600 in the Art Institute, 26 June\u201414 September 2008, no cat.","provenance_text":"Probably a Spanish convent [according to invoice from Steinmeyer, Paris, June 23, 1913 in curatorial file]. Private collection, Spain, by 1892 [according to Hymans 1894, p. 159, it was lent to the 1892\u201393 Madrid exhibition by a private owner].  Steinmeyer & Fils, Paris, 1913; sold to Martin A. Ryerson (d. 1932), Chicago, June 23, 1913 [invoice cited above]; on loan to the Art Institute by 1915; bequeathed to the Art Institute, 1933.","edition":null,"publishing_verification_level":"Web Cataloged","internal_department_id":14,"fiscal_year":1933,"fiscal_year_deaccession":null,"is_public_domain":true,"is_zoomable":true,"max_zoom_window_size":-1,"copyright_notice":null,"has_multimedia_resources":true,"has_educational_resources":false,"has_advanced_imaging":false,"colorfulness":50.6198,"color":{"h":359,"l":33,"s":68,"percentage":0.03744795664410485,"population":322},"latitude":41.8794811464592,"longitude":-87.6233499124645,"latlon":"41.879481146459,-87.623349912465","is_on_view":true,"on_loan_display":null,"gallery_title":"Gallery 202","gallery_id":2147483640,"nomisma_id":null,"artwork_type_title":"Painting","artwork_type_id":1,"department_title":"Painting and Sculpture of Europe","department_id":"PC-10","artist_id":35736,"artist_title":"Hans Memling","alt_artist_ids":[],"artist_ids":[35736],"artist_titles":["Hans Memling"],"category_ids":["PC-10"],"category_titles":["Painting and Sculpture of Europe"],"term_titles":["oil on panel","15th century","oil painting","oil paint (paint)","Century of Progress","window","Virgin Mary","Virgin and child\/Madonna and child","sons","river","religious scenes","religious figures","religious","religion","mother and child","mother","mirror","landscape","Jesus","interior","fruit","Christianity","Christian subjects","children","babies","apples","panel painting","painting techniques","painting (image making)","painting","wood (plant material)","plant material","panel (wood)","painting","paint","organic material","paint","oil paintings (visual works)","painting","european painting","world's fairs","Chicago World's Fairs"],"style_id":"TM-14074","style_title":"15th century","alt_style_ids":[],"style_ids":["TM-14074"],"style_titles":["15th century"],"classification_id":"TM-80","classification_title":"oil on panel","alt_classification_ids":["TM-10387","TM-78","TM-9","TM-54"],"classification_ids":["TM-80","TM-10387","TM-78","TM-9","TM-54"],"classification_titles":["oil on panel","paint","oil paintings (visual works)","painting","european painting"],"subject_id":"TM-12169","alt_subject_ids":["TM-14921","TM-8808","TM-8779","TM-13432","TM-15170","TM-10125","TM-12554","TM-14384","TM-11421","TM-13575","TM-13798","TM-14334","TM-14145","TM-12446","TM-14037","TM-11204","TM-12372","TM-8767","TM-10118","TM-12354","TM-12885","TM-11299","TM-12176"],"subject_ids":["TM-12169","TM-14921","TM-8808","TM-8779","TM-13432","TM-15170","TM-10125","TM-12554","TM-14384","TM-11421","TM-13575","TM-13798","TM-14334","TM-14145","TM-12446","TM-14037","TM-11204","TM-12372","TM-8767","TM-10118","TM-12354","TM-12885","TM-11299","TM-12176"],"subject_titles":["Century of Progress","window","Virgin Mary","Virgin and child\/Madonna and child","sons","river","religious scenes","religious figures","religious","religion","mother and child","mother","mirror","landscape","Jesus","interior","fruit","Christianity","Christian subjects","children","babies","apples","world's fairs","Chicago World's Fairs"],"material_id":"TM-2451","alt_material_ids":["TM-2431","TM-3478","TM-3644","TM-13502","TM-2577","TM-2601"],"material_ids":["TM-2451","TM-2431","TM-3478","TM-3644","TM-13502","TM-2577","TM-2601"],"material_titles":["oil paint (paint)","wood (plant material)","plant material","panel (wood)","painting","paint","organic material"],"technique_id":"TM-4273","alt_technique_ids":["TM-3975","TM-3971","TM-3891","TM-14210"],"technique_ids":["TM-4273","TM-3975","TM-3971","TM-3891","TM-14210"],"technique_titles":["oil painting","panel painting","painting techniques","painting (image making)","painting"],"theme_titles":[],"image_id":"72083f93-6fe2-bfa8-b9a0-82e50c123015","alt_image_ids":[],"document_ids":["b3d2fcbb-03d5-65ad-1464-6c95bf8ada99"],"sound_ids":["b3d2fcbb-03d5-65ad-1464-6c95bf8ada99"],"video_ids":[],"text_ids":[],"section_ids":[],"section_titles":[],"site_ids":[],"suggest_autocomplete_all":[{"input":["1933.1050"],"contexts":{"groupings":["accession"]}},{"input":["Virgin and Child"],"weight":5828,"contexts":{"groupings":["title"]}}],"source_updated_at":"2026-05-29T11:00:56-05:00","updated_at":"2026-08-27T15:11:39-05:00","timestamp":"2026-09-06T05:52:04-05:00"},"info":{"license_text":"The `description` field in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Generic License (CC-By) and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu. All other data in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) 1.0 designation and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu.","license_links":["https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/zero\/1.0\/","https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/terms"],"version":"1.15"},"config":{"iiif_url":"https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/iiif\/2","website_url":"http:\/\/www.artic.edu"}}