Virgin and Child with Four Angels

Virgin and Child with Four Angels (or Virgin and Child with Angels) is a small oil-on-panel painting by the Early Netherlandish artist Gerard David. Likely completed between 1510 and 1515, it shows the Virgin Mary holding the child Jesus, while she is crowned Queen of Heaven by two angels above her, accompanied by music provided by another two angels placed at either side of her. In its fine detail and lush use of colour the work is typical of both David and late period Flemish art.

The painting is heavily influenced by Jan van Eyck's Virgin with Child at a Fountain, especially in the modeling of the Madonna and child. However, David has introduced many significant modifications, including the widening of the pictorial space, the placement of two additional angels, and the setting of the scene in a contemporary setting with a view of Bruges in the distance. Van Eyck's panel was heavily influenced by the conventions of Byzantine art, and was likely itself a blend of specific works. Yet the painting is mid-Renaissance in its humanising of the Virgin and child; in earlier works the mother and child figures were presented as distant and remote deities. In David's panel they are entirely human and recognisable as an affectionate and bonded mother and son.

Virgin and Child with Four Angels has been housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, since its donation from a private collection in 1977. David inscribed the painting with the words "IHESVS [RE]DEMPT[OR]" ("Jesus Redeemer") on the columns.

Painted for private devotion, it shows a full-length Mary holding Jesus. Mother and son are surrounded by four angels; the two above Mary are adorned with large colourful wings and hold a golden crown, symbolising her role as Queen of Heaven while another two, each bearing large wings, sit on either side of her playing a harp and lute respectively. The scene takes place below a Gothic arch in a walled garden—intended to represent Mary's pureness and virginity— and before a view of contemporary Bruges.

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