The Virgin with the Sleeping Child

Joos van Cleve painted this Virgin with the Sleeping Child around 1517, one of the many intimate Madonna compositions that formed a staple of his prolific Antwerp workshop. Such devotional half-lengths were produced in multiple versions and enjoyed wide distribution through Antwerp's international art market. The oil medium allowed for rich tonal transitions and glazed layers of color that created luminous depth impossible with the older tempera technique. Such devotional panels served both liturgical contexts in churches and chapels and private devotional use in the homes of wealthy families who maintained personal altars and oratories.

The panel shows Joos van Cleve's refined modeling of flesh tones and textiles, with the tender intimacy between mother and child characteristic of his most popular devotional compositions.