Description

The gold text on the bottom edge of the Virgin Mary’s red mantle translates as “Hail, Queen of the heavens, Mother of the king of angels.” These lines, from a hymn called a Marian antiphon, were famously set to music as a choral composition in the 15th century. This kind of polyphonic music, requiring multiple trained voices employed at great expense, was associated with the extravagant culture of the Brussels court. Its evocation here, like the bejeweled crown lowered onto Mary’s head, serves to honor the Virgin and to inspire aural worship.

Provenance

Probably Don Luis Portilla, Madrid, by 1880; sold, Madrid, 1880, no. 89 [first suggested by Campbell 1981; then attributed to Rogier van der Weyden, is described as “La Vírgen y el Niño; dos Angeles la coronan y otro presenta al Niño un canastillo de flores” (the Virgin and Child; two angels crown her and another presents a basket of flowers to the Child)]. J. G. Arthur, London [according to Colnaghi stock card]; sold to Colnaghi, London, Dec. 1906, with a half-share owned by Knoedler, Paris and New York [Colnaghi stock card]; sold by Knoedler, New York, to Ryerson, for $15,000, Oct. 31, 1912 [bill of sale, Art Institute Archives]; Martin A. Ryerson (d. 1932), Chicago; on loan to the Art Institute from 1913; bequeathed to the Art Institute, 1933.