Virgin and Child in a Landscape

The Master of the Embroidered Foliage painted this Virgin and Child in a Landscape around 1500. This anonymous Netherlandish painter, named for the distinctive embroidery-like treatment of vegetation in his backgrounds, was active in Brussels and produced works of refined quality. The landscape setting integrates the sacred figures into a verdant, idealized natural world. The oil medium allowed for rich tonal transitions and glazed layers of color that created luminous depth impossible with the older tempera technique.

Oil on panel with the Master's characteristic minutely detailed foliage treatment, resembling embroidered fabric. The figures are set against a deep landscape with the luminous atmospheric perspective typical of the Brussels school.