Vierge à l'Enfant au croissant de Lune

The Vierge à l'Enfant au croissant de Lune (Virgin and Child with the Crescent Moon) depicts the Immaculate Virgin — identified by the crescent moon beneath her feet from the Book of Revelation's woman clothed with the sun — a subject with particular theological currency in the late 15th century when the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception was being increasingly championed by the Franciscan order against Dominican objections. Van der Goes's version places the crescent moon motif within his distinctive approach to the Virgin and Child type, combining Flemish domestic naturalism with the cosmic symbolism of apocalyptic Mariology.

The crescent moon introduces a symbolic element that Van der Goes must integrate with his characteristically naturalistic figure rendering — the physical Mary and the celestial symbol occupying the same pictorial space. His handling of the Child's flesh against the Virgin's blue robe demonstrates the tonal mastery that makes his Madonna figures among the most convincing in Flemish painting.