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This little panel with the Virgin and Child belonged to the collection of Frederick II of Prussia and entered the Schloss Rohoncz Collection before 1930, the date in which it was included in the exhibition in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich which brought the collection assembled by Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza to public fame. Attributed to Dürer when it was in Frederick II's collection, it was subsequently attributed to Memling, Van Eyck and to two different anonymous artists. The first connection with the circle of Van der Weyden was made in 1892, in an exhibition on Flemish Primitives in the Burlington Fine Arts Club in London, where it appeared attributed to Van der Weyden. It has sustained this attribution since the second decade of the present century.
The Early Netherlandish artists, headed by Van der Weyden, had a particular ability to create new iconographic themes which they successfully disseminated through the rest of Europe. Among them was the representation of the Virgin in churches, the subject of the present painting, in which, despite its small dimensions, Van der Weyden represents an elaborately ornamental setting painted with great delicacy and with the care of a miniaturist or a goldsmith.
In the panel the Virgin is seated with Christ before the portico of a church which could also be read as a chapel given the shape of the opening. Mary, wearing a vividly blue gown and crowned as the Queen of the Heavens, holds the Infant Christ in her lap as He suckles, dressed in red clothes which prefigure His sacrifice. The image, popular since the early Middle Ages, exalts the Virgin's maternity. Mary as presented here by Van der Weyden is not just the Queen of the Heavens through her crown and the Mother of God through her suckling of Christ, but is also the Bride of Christ through the ring which she wears on one of her fingers.
The background chosen by the painter is a sculptural ensemble which freely reproduces the façade of a non specific Gothic church whose decoration includes references to the Old and New Testaments, as is traditional. The Old Testament, which served as the basis for the Gospel, is represented in the jambs of the arch by the figures of the Prophets. Among them one can only make out clearly the figure of King David in the central sculpture on the left, wearing his crown and carrying his harp. The role of David as a musician is interlinked with the messianic role attributed to him in the psalms and which symbolises, together with the divine homage which he makes in his biblical text, the repentance of sin. At his side appears another crowned figure which could represent Solomon, the king who has also been interpreted as a prefiguration of Christ. In the upper part in the small ovoid niches, are arranged various episodes from the New Testament in which the Virgin has special importance, such as the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Birth of Christ, the Adoration of the new born Christ by His mother and the Adoration of the Magi. From the cycle of the Glory of Christ, Van der Weyden chose the Resurrection and the Pentecost, and from that of the Glory of the Virgin he chose her Coronation, which is also placed above the centre of the portal. This complex iconographic programme emphasises the Virgin's role as Mother of Christ and intercessor before God for Man's salvation. The scene, which is charged with emotion, evident in Mary's sad and melancholy gaze, is painted with exquisite finish by Van der Weyden.
Mar Borobia
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