Virgin and child with female saints

This work by Master of the Cologne legend of St. Ursula, created around 1485, reflects the anonymous workshop traditions that produced much of Europe's devotional art during the Early Renaissance period. Such panels served the liturgical and devotional needs of churches and private patrons across the continent. The oil medium allowed for rich tonal transitions and glazed layers of color that created luminous depth impossible with the older tempera technique. Such devotional panels served both liturgical contexts in churches and chapels and private devotional use in the homes of wealthy families who maintained personal altars and oratories.

Tempera on panel with the careful craftsmanship characteristic of established late fifteenth-century workshops. The work demonstrates competent handling of standard devotional or narrative subjects.