The Virgin and Child

While in the 15th century, Netherlandish painters most frequently produced works in oil on oak panels, they often also created works in distemper, ground pigments mixed with water and egg white, gum or animal glue, on fine-weave linen to create what is known as tüchleins. As there was usually no ground preparation, tüchlein paintings tend to have matte surfaces which were not intended to be varnished. The resulting works of art were more prone to damage than their counterparts on panel, and accordingly precious few examples survive.

The present work belongs to a group of five tüchleins of the same composition, all of which painted by the same artist. As the earliest and strongest of these is now in the Musée Des Beaux-Arts, Dijon, Diane Wolfthal christened him the Master of the Dijon Madonna. Though each exhibits minor differences in the figures’ attire, Wolfthal notes that in 'all of them the Virgin has long, bony fingers, pencil-thin eyebrows, and a long, round-tipped nose. Waves of hair are indicated by parallel rows of thin, gently curving lines. Hair hangs in solid blocks, rather than falling in individual strands. The Child is short-haired and pudgy' (op. cit., p. 57). She further remarks that this anonymous master was likely a Flemish artist active around the turn of the century. No panels by him are known, and accordingly he may have been a canvas specialist. Due to stylistic similarities with the works of the Master of the Magdalen Legend, Wolfthal further speculates that he may have been active in Brussels.