Madonna and Child in a Window

Martin Schongauer's Madonna and Child in a Window, painted around 1487 and now in the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, is one of the very few panel paintings securely attributed to this exceptional German master, who was known primarily as the greatest engraver in Europe before Dürer and whose prints circulated throughout the continent influencing artists from Leonardo to Ghirlandaio. Schongauer's prints are celebrated for their technical refinement, their elegant figure types, and their synthesis of Flemish naturalism with German expressive power.

Oil on panel with exceptional refinement characteristic of the greatest German painter-engraver of his generation. The window framing creates a trompe-l'oeil device in which the sacred figures appear to inhabit the viewer's own architectural space, leaning from a window as if in actual proximity.