Provenance: french private collection
Our panel depicts a very beautiful painting of the Virgin and Child against a landscape characteristic of the Master with the Parrot. Both delicate and...
read moreProvenance: french private collection
Our panel depicts a very beautiful painting of the Virgin and Child against a landscape characteristic of the Master with the Parrot. Both delicate and slender, the Virgin holds the Child on her lap, whose position here is particularly elegant. Christ, portrayed as a real little man, appears to be very light, with his feet gracefully brushing against the heavy red gown of the Virgin.
Particular to the style of this painter, the Virgin has extremely feminine fine, elongated features. In addition, the way she is sitting is a pretext to show off a magnificent red drape, whose soft and elaborate folds bear witness to the artist’s talent. The round cheeks, the long, fine nose, the slightly rounded eyelids, the round chin and slender fingers are all typical elements of the Master with the Parrot. The delicate execution is present in the faces of both figures: the fine blond hair of the Virgin forms little curls around the back of her neck, and their golden hue contributes to the harmonious rendering of the face. The incredible luminosity of the painting makes the Virgin and Child stand out, and makes their flesh tint look like porcelain.
The Master with the Parrot distinguishes himself from his contemporaries through the particularly refined way he paints his landscapes, which open onto magnificent views. In this version, the viewer’s gaze is led up hill and dale, to discover a fascinating world. The landscape behind the Virgin and Child also tells us a story. It is an integral part of the painting: a sort of third character. The background of the painting opens onto a wealthy-looking hamlet, surrounded by fertile land. A peasant pulling his donkey crosses the road (it may well be Saint Joseph).
Owing to his size, the colours and position in the picture, the figure provides the perfect link between the main subject and the little village. Attentive to the smallest details, the artist has delicately placed swans on the small lake, where a peasant is beating her washing on its banks. Here, his palette uses a mixture of greens and blues, providing a soft, calm atmosphere. Our painting, which is a unique work of the Master with the Parrot from every point of view, harmoniously combines the image of intimate piety with the beauty of a 16th century Flemish landscape.
Active in Antwerp during the first third of the 16th century
A painter of figures and religious compositions, this anonymous master from Antwerp who worked during the first half of the 16th century, was given this name by M. J. Friedländer owing to the parrot which – although it does not have the value of a signature – features in several of his paintings of the Madonna, where the Child is playing with the bird.
His portrayals of the Virgin and Child and Mary Magdalene, depicted as young aristocrats dressed in the fashion of the 1530s, are similar to the works of his contemporary, the Master of Half Figures, whose highly mannerist style and method of production are sometimes – and more rarely – confused with figures by Pieter Coeck d’Alost.
The portrayal of the Virgin, with her oval face, the expression of her features, the slender fingers and the elongated body of the Child, are common to both anonymous artists who continuously rendered a disguised homage to the ideal grace and sensitivity of the noble women of the court of Margaret of Austria and Mary of Hungary.
