Virgin and Child

c. 1460

Workshop of Rogier van der Weyden (Netherlandish, c. 1399-1464)

This tender painting is an image type known as a Madonna lactans, which depicts the Virgin Mary nursing the infant Jesus, highlighting her role as nurturer and intercessor between the human and divine realms. To convey the close connection between mother and son, Rogier van der Weyden exploited the qualities of oil paint, a highly manipulable medium that can be blended while wet. This characteristic allows for realistic modeling through seamless transitions of light and shadow, seen most poignantly here in the slight indentations of Mary’s fingers in the infant’s skin where she supports him.

Status: On View, Gallery 202
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Workshop of Rogier van der Weyden
Title: Virgin and Child
Place: Belgium (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1455–1465
Medium: Oil on panel
Dimensions: 38.4 × 28.3 cm (15 1/8 × 11 1/8 in.); Framed: 45.8 × 34.3 × 5.1 cm (18 × 13 1/2 × 2 in.)
Credit Line: Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection
Reference Number: 1933.1052
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/16303/manifest.json

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Georges Hulin de Loo, Exposition de tableaux flamands des XIVe, XVe, et XVIe siècles: Catalogue critique, Ghent, 1902, p. 7, no. 28.
Henri Hymans, “L’exposition de primitifs flamands à Bruges,” Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 3rd. ser., 28 (1902), pp. 194–96 (ill.).
Giorgio Le Brun, “L’esposizione dei primitivi fiamminghi,” Rassegna d’Arte 2 (1902), pp. 146 (ill.), 147.
Franz Dülberg, “Die Ausstellung altniederländischer Meister in Brügge,” Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst, n.s., 14 (1903), p. 55.
Max J. Friedländer, “Die Brügger Leihausstellung von 1902,” Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft 26 (1903), pp. 70–71.
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M[anuel] Gómez-Moreno, “Un Trésor de peintures inédites de XVe siècle à Grenade,” Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 3rd ser., 40 (1908), pp. 303–04.
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Paul Lafond, Roger van der Weyden, Brussels and Paris, 1912, p. 86.
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Friedrich Winkler, Der Meister von Flémalle und Rogier van der Weyden, Strasbourg, 1913, pp. 74–76, 175.
The Art Institute of Chicago, Handbook of Sculpture, Architecture, Paintings, and Drawings, vol. 2, August 1920, p. 64.
Martin Conway, The Van Eycks and Their Followers, London, 1921, p. 150.
Max J. Friedländer, Von Eyck bis Breugel: Studien zur Geschichte der niederländischen
Malerei, Berlin, 1921, p. 185.
The Art Institute of Chicago, Handbook of Sculpture, Architecture, and Paintings, May 1922, p. 74.
Karl Voll, Die altniederländische Malerei von Jan van Eyck bis Memling: Ein entwicklungsgeschichtlicher Versuch, Leipzig, 1923, pp. 80, 259.
Max J. Friedländer, Die altniederländische Malerei, vol. 2, Berlin, 1924, pp. 34–37, 101, no. 27; rev. English ed., Early Netherlandish Painting, Brussels and Leiden, 1967, pp. 23–24, 66, no. 27, pl. 49.
G[eorges] Hulin de Loo, “Diptychs by Rogier van der Weyden—II,” Burlington Magazine 44 (1924), p. 186.
Georges Hulin de Loo, “A Mysterious Our Lady by Dieric Bouts,” Burlington Magazine 45 (1924), p. 56.
The Art Institute of Chicago, A Guide to the Paintings in the Permanent Collection, 1925, p. 161, no. 2089.
Rose Mary Fischkin, “Martin A. Ryerson Collection of Paintings and Sculpture, XIII to XVII Century, Loaned to The Art Institute of Chicago,” unpub. MS, 1926, Ryerson Library, The Art Institute of Chicago, pp. 69–70.
G[eorges] Hulin de Loo and Édouard Michel, Early Flemish Paintings in the Renders Collection at Bruges: Exhibited at the Belgian Exhibition, Burlington House, January, 1927, London, 1927, p. 62.
H. Fierens-Gevaert, Histoire de la peinture flamande des origines à la fin du XVe siècle, vol. 2, Paris and Brussels, 1928, p. 60, fig. 76.
Malcolm Vaughan, “Rogier van der Weydens in America,” International Studio 90, 374 (1928), pp. 42 (ill.), 47.
Jeanne Tombu, “Le Maître de la Légende de Marie-Madeleine,” Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 6th ser., 2 (1929), p. 268.
Jules Destrée, Roger de la Pasture–van der Weyden, Paris and Brussels, 1930, p. 119, pl. 45.
The Art Institute of Chicago, A Guide to the Paintings in the Permanent Collection, 1932, p. 183, no. 43.15.
Frankfurter 1933, pp. 20 (ill.), 60. “The Rearrangement of the Painting Galleries,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 27 (1933), p. 114 (cover ill.).
Émile Renders, “La Question Maître de Flémalle—Rogier van der Weyden: La Vierge du Musée du Berlin n’est pas de Rogier,” La Revue de l’art ancien et moderne 63 (1933), p. 58.
Daniel Catton Rich, “Die Ausstellung ‘Fünf Jahrhunderte der Frühmalerei in Chicago,’” Pantheon 6 (1933), p. 376. Rich 1933b, p. 11.
Henry S. Francis, “A Madonna and Child by Hans Memling,” Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 21 (1934), p. 143.
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Wolfgang Schöne, Dieric Bouts und seine Schule, Berlin and Leipzig, 1938, p. 61, no. 24.
E. P. Richardson, “The Rest on the Flight into Egypt,” Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 2 (1939), p. 42, fig. 5.
F[riedrich] Winkler, “Rogier van der Weyden”, in 7ieme/Becker, vol. 35, 1942, pp. 472, 475.
An American Correspondent, “Flemish and Dutch Paintings in the Ryerson Collection,” Connoisseur 119 (1947), pp. 45–47 (ill.).
Theodor Musper, Untersuchungen zu Rogier van der Weyden und Jan van Eyck, Stuttgart, 1948, p. 21.
Hermann Beenken, Rogier van der Weyden, Munich, 1951, pp. 77–78, fig. 94.
Erwin Panofsky, Early Netherlandish Painting: Its Origins and Character, Cambridge, Mass., 1953 , pp. 296, 480.
Dieric Bouts, exh. cat., Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, 1957, p. 96, under no. 34.
The Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection, 1961, pp. 481–82.
Karl Arndt, review of Colin T. Eisler, New England Museums, in Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 27 (1964), p. 180.
Dirk de Vos, “De Madonna-en-Kindtypologie bij Rogier van der Weyden,” Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen, n.s., 13 (1971), pp. 88, 101, 104–15, 124–25, 130–31, 133, 154, 160, fig. 39.
Martin Davies, Rogier van der Weyden, London, 1972, pp. 203, 205, 210, pl. 83.
The Art Institute of Chicago, 100 Masterpieces, 1978, p. 5, no. 5 (ill.).
Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Gemäldegalerie, Catalogue of Paintings, 13th–18th Century, 2nd rev. ed., Berlin and Dahlem, 1978, p. 486.
Dirk de Vos, Stedelijke Musea Brugge: Catalogus schilderijen 15de en 16de eeuw, Bruges, 1979, p. 140.
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Patrick M. de Winter, “A Book of Hours of Queen Isabel la Católica,” Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 67 (1981), p. 406, fig. 155.
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Laura D. Gelfand, “Devotion, Imitation, and Social Aspirations: Fifteenth-Century Bruges and a Memling School Madonna and Child,” Cleveland Studies in the History of Art 5 (2000), pp. 8–9, 18, fig 2.
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Bruges, Grande Salle des Halles, Tableaux de l’ancienne école néerlandaise, 1867, no. 18, as unknown master.
Bruges, Hôtel de Gouvernement Provincial, Exposition des primitifs flamands et d’art ancien, 1902, no. 28.
Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress, 1933, no. 56.
Art Institute of Chicago A Century of Progress, 1934, no. 129.
Art Institute of Chicago, The Christmas Story in Art, 1938–39 (no cat.).
The Art Institute of Chicago, New Light on Old Masters: Research on Northern European and Spanish Paintings before 1600 in the Art Institute, 26 June—14 September 2008, no cat.

Vincent Steyaert, Bruges, by 1867 [lent by him to Bruges 1867]. Dr. De Meyer, Bruges, by 1884 [according to Hymans 1884 and 1902]. J. Mathys, Brussels, by 1902 [lent by him to Bruges 1902]; sold, Galerie J. & A. Le Roy Frères, Brussels, Dec. 18, 1911, no. 11, to Steinmeyer & Fils, Paris; sold to Martin A. Ryerson (d. 1932), Chicago, June 23, 1913 [invoice; Art Institute Archives]; on loan to the Art Institute from 1915; bequeathed to the Art Institute, 1933.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.