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Notes
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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
