Artist: Lucas Van Leyden
Date: 1530
Size: 35 x 28 cm
Technique: Oil On Panel
The Christ Child lies on the lap of the Virgin, who is seated in front of a green curtain and supports him with her right arm. In his right hand he is holding a pink as a symbol of divine love, and in his left hand he has an orb surmounted by a cross as a token of his worldly authority. This Virgin and Child was first attributed to Lucas van Leyden in 1913, and was for a long time regarded as one of his undisputed works. However, its rather poor quality led Reznicek-Buriks to question this attribution in 1965,8 and those doubts were confirmed by technical examination.9 The sparse underdrawing and the paint structure lack the precision and liveliness found in The Virgin and Child in Oslo, which can be regarded as autograph and is related to the Rijksmuseum painting in its figure types and palette (fig. a).10 Although the paint surface of the Oslo panel has suffered badly from overheating, it can be seen that the paint was handled in a far more draughtsman-like way. In view of the close relationship with the figures in Lucas van Leyden’s Triptych with the Last Judgement,11 the small Oslo painting can be dated around 1528. Dendrochronological examination has shown that the support of the Rijksmuseum Virgin and Child came from the same tree as the wings of Lucas van Leyden’s Triptych with the Dance around the Golden Calf (SK-A-3841). This makes it likely that ‘The Virgin and Child’ was executed in Lucas’s workshop around 1530 - the date of The Dance around the Golden Calf. There is a smaller, rather more subtle version of this Virgin and Child in which the composition extends further at the bottom and sides (fig. b). This suggests that the Amsterdam painting has been cut down on three sides, which is confirmed by the lack of unpainted edges there. Both paintings are probably slightly later versions of a lost original by Lucas van Leyden that can be dated around 1530, like the work in Oslo. (Jan Piet Filedt Kok)
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