Mother of the Messiah and the Four Evangelists

Charles Verlat was a Belgian painter and teacher who became director of the Antwerp Academy, where he was a formative influence on Van Gogh during his brief studies there in 1885-86. This 1873 religious painting of the Mother of the Messiah with the Four Evangelists places Verlat within the tradition of large-scale devotional painting that continued in Belgium long after it had faded in France. His religious works combine academic competence with sincere devotional intent. The Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp holds this as part of its collection of Belgian academic painting, documenting the continued vitality of religious subject matter in Flemish art.

Verlat employs an academic technique appropriate to large-scale devotional subject matter — careful figure drawing, controlled modeling in the tradition of Renaissance religious painting, and a subdued palette organized around the central grouping.