RUBENS, Peter Paul
(b. 1577, Siegen, d. 1640, Antwerpen)

Virgin and Child

1624-25
Oil on canvas, 151 x 108 cm
Staatliche Museen, Berlin

For all his modernity, Rubens often worked very much like a late-Medieval Northern master, either by employing assistants or by acting in collaboration with independent masters. This cooperation is found in this conventional, if not archaic, Virgin and Child, where flowers, book, still-life, carpet, background, and Mary's dress may well be the work of several studio specialists, each highly skilled in his respective field.