Detail of a Virgin and Child Attributed to Simon Bening in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, August 2010

Artist: Attributed to Simon Bening (Netherlandish, Ghent (?) 1483/84–1561 Bruges)

Title: Virgin and Child

Date: ca. 1520

Medium: Oil on wood

Dimensions: Overall 10 x 8 1/4 in. (25.4 x 21 cm), with added strip of 3/8 in. (1 cm) at top; painted surface 9 5/8 x 8 1/4 in. (24.4 x 21 cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: The Friedsam Collection, Bequest of Michael Friedsam, 1931

Accession Number: 32.100.53


Gallery Label:

The motif of the "Virgin and Child" is taken directly from David's "Rest on the Flight into Egypt" (MMA, 49.7.21), but placed in a different context. Joseph is absent, and there is no overt reference to the journey of the Holy Family. Thus, in keeping with a contemporary trend toward the secularization of religious scenes, the image suggests an ordinary mother nurturing her child. Bening was a celebrated miniaturist and the landscape here is stylistically close to those in his documented works.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/collection_database/europe...