BOUTS, Dieric the Elder
(b. ca. 1415, Haarlem, d. 1475, Leuven)

Virgin and Child

1455-60
Oil on wood, 29 x 20 cm
Museo Correr, Venice

Mary's milk, loving gaze, and protective embrace are temporary respites from the sacrificial fate heralded by the funeral emblems of the cloth and the coral.