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Eyes to behold stunning artworks in world-class museums.

From 15th Century To 16th Century

  • Yoel Davis

Yoel Davis

•4 min read
Netherlandish, Oudewater ca. 1455–1523 Bruges / The Met

    This painting is a Christ Blessing.
    It was adapted from Byzantine icons brought to the Low Countries in the fifteenth century.

The Marriage Feast at Cana

Netherlandish, active by 1496–died 1519 Palencia / The Met

    This was one of forty-seven panels representing the lives of Christ and the Virgin that were made for Isabella of Castile.
    It represents the marriage feast at Cana, when Christ performed his first miracle turning water into wine.
    Traditionally, the bride and groom are identified as Saint John the Evangelist and Mary Magdalen.
    Here the two quite possibly are disguised portraits of Prince Juan, and Isabella's daughter-in-law, Margaret of Austria, who married in 1497.
    Looking in from the courtyard at the left may be the portrait of a court functionary or possibly a self-portrait of the artist.

The Holy Family

Robert Lehman Collection / The Met

    This small tapestry depicting the Holy Family was probably made as an object of private devotion.
    Small hangings like this were designed in workshops that specialized in creating cartoons (large-scale drawings) based on contemporary paintings and prints.
    In this Holy Family the indoor/outdoor setting juxtaposes a divine interior with a worldly exterior.
    Mary and the Christ Child sit in a partially enclosed room while Joseph appears from a balustrade window with a distant view of a village in the distance.
    The attributes of the interior setting carry symbolic content.
    For example, the books on the shelf above the Virgin represent the Old and New Testament.
    The pomegranate to the left on the shelf symbolizes the Resurrection while the basket of sewing materials in
   the near ground alludes to the domestic aspects of life on earth

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