The Visitation

Maestro de la Sisla painted this Visitation around 1500 in Castile. The meeting of Mary and Elizabeth was a standard component of Marian altarpiece cycles. This anonymous master's consistent production of such scenes documents the widespread demand for altarpiece panels in Castilian churches. The tempera-on-panel medium required a carefully gessoed surface and was painted in fine, precise layers, yielding a luminous, jewel-like surface of great durability.

Oil on panel with Castilian late Gothic coloring and conventional narrative staging. The two women's embrace follows the established iconographic format for this scene.