The Madonna and Child Enthroned

The Madonna and Child Enthroned by Adriaen Isenbrandt, now at the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo, exemplifies the global dispersal of Flemish devotional painting through the modern art market. The NMWA in Tokyo, opened in 1959 to house the Matsukata Collection purchased by the Japanese government and supplemented by later acquisitions, has built a significant holding of European old masters that includes Flemish panel paintings of this type. Isenbrandt's composition follows the Bruges enthroned Madonna tradition derived from Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden: the Virgin seated on a throne in an architectural or landscape setting, the Christ Child on her lap, angels in attendance. The undated work likely belongs to Isenbrandt's mature period in the 1520s–1540s, when he was the leading figure of the Bruges school following Gerard David's death in 1523.

The enthroned Madonna format allowed the painter to deploy the full vocabulary of Flemish technical excellence: precise rendering of the throne's carved details, the lapis lazuli of Mary's mantle, the gold of her crown, the landscape depth receding through an arched window behind her. Isenbrandt's cold, clear palette — characteristic of Bruges as opposed to Antwerp's warmer tonality — gives these compositions a crystalline quality that suits the subject's elevated dignity.