John the Baptist and the Virgin and Child by the School of Van Eyck in the Louvre, June 2014

Entourage de Jan VAN EYCK
Maaseyck, vers 1390-1395 - Bruges, 1441

(16th-century pastiche?)

Saint John the Baptist and Virgin and Child
H. 0.37 m; W. 0.22 m

These paintings on the inside surfaces of a small diptych feature imitation sculptures in grisaille. The outer surfaces were originally painted in imitation porphyry, but later transformed into imitation binding. The subject is close to the Annunciation, but less traditional: the Precursor, on the left, announces the Incarnation in the person of the Virgin holding Jesus. In formal terms, the diptych is derived from van Eyck's Annunciation (Thyssen Foundation, Madrid), but it does not have the same sculptural quality and was probably painted, like the Saint John the Baptist in the Cleveland Museum of Art, by a follower who was active in around 1440 and close to Petrus Christus.

Collection of the American painter Walter Gay; gift of his widow, 1937
Department of Paintings
R.F. 1938-22

Text from: cartelen.louvre.fr/cartelen/visite?srv=car_not_frame&idNotice=23991&langue=en