Seated in the centre of the group of figures to the right of the composition, the Virgin Mary holds the Child on her knees; a lamb, symbol of Christ’s future sacrifice, lies at her feet. She is surrounded by Joseph, draped in red, and her mother, Saint Anne, holding the young Saint John the Baptist. Behind her, an angel with wings outspread bows before the Child. The quiet majesty of this bucolic forest, its central clearing opening onto the luminous distance, is particularly well suited to this holy scene, which can be associated with the story of the rest on the flight into Egypt.

The picture is an old copy of a work painted by Hans Rottenhammer, for the figures, and Jan Brueghel the Elder, youngest son of Pieter Brueghel the Elder, for the landscape, today held at the Alte Pinakothek in Munich. Jan Brueghel’s extremely meticulous virtuoso technique, the rich freshness and great delicacy of the colours, together with his exceptional mastery of fading and gradation, earned him the nickname of “Velvet” Brueghel. The painter excels above all in its representation of misty foliage, and in the realistic rendering of flowers, here shown in abundance, in their natural state, cut, in bouquets, in baskets, and in wreaths. The very small format of this work, imbued with softness and harmony, corresponds to the intimate, domestic character of private religious devotion.

H. D.