Virgin and Child (rounded at the top)

The Master of the Legend of the Magdalene's Virgin and Child with arched top belongs to the Brussels-based painter's devotional production, the arched format suggesting this panel was either designed for an arched niche or was part of a larger altarpiece program. This master, working in Brussels in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, produced Flemish devotional imagery of high quality characterized by rich colors, carefully observed textures, and idealized facial beauty. His Virgin figures, often shown against elaborate textile backgrounds or gold brocade draperies, represent the sumptuous Flemish devotional aesthetic that made works from the Brussels school sought after across Catholic Europe.

The devotional composition is rendered with attention to the expressive and contemplative qualities that served the painting's function as an aid to prayer and meditation.