Saint Luke Drawing the Virgin

Image credit: The Bowes Museum

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Legend has it that the apostle and evangelist St Luke painted the Virgin, possibly from a vision. The subject of St Luke, patron saint of painters (as well as physicians), seen depicting the Virgin was popular with 15th century Netherlandish artists and would often have been commissioned in mediaeval times by the painters' Guilds of St Luke and their academies and paintings of which are found in chapels dedicated to the saint. In this painting Luke, which also may be a self portrait of the artist, if not a member of the confraternity that commissioned the picture, is shown standing,  with one knee bent, on a tiled floor, here making a preliminary drawing, in silverpoint, of the Virgin, who appears next to him in corporeal form with the Christ Child who is not being breast-fed but being offered a piece of fruit.

The Bowes Museum

Barnard Castle

Title

Saint Luke Drawing the Virgin

Medium

oil on canvas transferred from panel

Measurements

H 109 x W 86.5 cm

Accession number

2016.10

Acquisition method

on loan to Bristol Museum & Art Gallery

Work type

Painting

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The Bowes Museum

Barnard Castle, County Durham DL12 8NP England

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