The Virgin and Child with Saints

Anthony Van Dyck

Summary

A reproduction produced by the Vasari Society of a drawing by Antony van Dyck. It is a crowded scene with the Virgin Mary seated in the centre with the Christ Child sitting in her lap. The child is reaching out his right arm and looks down at a man kneeling before him to the left. In the left of the composition are two men, barefoot and wearing friar's habits, facing towards the right and looking at Mary in the centre. In the left background is a half naked man carrying a bundle of arrows, and leaning against a pillar, which is just to the right of where Mary is seated. In the right foreground is a kneeling woman, facing towards the left, and behind her are several men in armour. Text from the accompanying booklet produced by the Vasari Society: "No. 22 ANTONY VAN DYCK (b. 1599; d. 1641) THE VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH SAINTS Collection of the Duke of Devonshire, Chatsworth. From the Collection of N. A. Flinck. Pen and sepia; sepia wash and Indian ink wash. 21 x 27.7 cm. (8 1/4 x 10 7/8 in.) To the left of the Virgin and Child are St. Jerome (kneeling), St. Sebastian, and two Franciscan (?) saints, barefoot and in friar's habit; on the right are St. Catherine, St. George, and an angel (?). There are two other studies for the same composition in the Albertina (reproduced Braun, Nos. 774-5, and Meder, Handzeichnungen in der Aibertina, No. 907). The Virgin and Child and St. Jerome are treated similarly in all three examples, but the other figures are not entirely the same, and are differently placed in the two versions of the Albertina. A drawing of the same style and period was reproduced by the Vasari Society, Pt. III, No. 16 (the 'Marriage of St. Catherine'). [With the Manchester City Art Gallery accession number 1932.71.16] A. M. H."