Diptych: ''Virgin and Child'' and ''Portrait of Willem van Bibaut''

The Master of the Legend of the Magdalene's Diptych with Virgin and Child and Portrait of Willem van Bibaut from 1530 pairs a devotional image with the portrait of a Flemish cleric in the format that allowed wealthy patrons to have themselves depicted in eternal prayer before their chosen sacred intercessors. Van Bibaut, a Brussels ecclesiastic, is shown kneeling opposite the Virgin and Child in the private chapel of his imagination, the diptych format physically enacting the devotional relationship between worshipper and sacred image. The Master of the Legend of the Magdalene is a scholarly attribution convention for an anonymous Flemish painter working in Brussels around 1500-1530, probably in the circle of Jan van Coninxloo. The work reflects the continuing vitality of the Flemish devotional portrait tradition in the early sixteenth century, well into the Reformation era.

The precise rendering of the donor's features in the portrait panel contrasts with the more idealized treatment of the Virgin, both executed with the meticulous oil technique characteristic of the Bruges-Brussels school.