St Luke Madonna, 1435-40
by Rogier van der WEYDEN
Rogier created another great work during his early period in Brussels, roughly between the middle of the 1430s and the beginning of the 1440s: the painting of St Luke Drawing a Portrait of the Virgin, known as the St Luke Madonna. St Luke the Evangelist was also the first Christian painter, and had painted the Virgin Mary from life. As a consequence he was the patron saint of painters, and in many towns and cities was regarded as patron of their guilds. As a result, most of the major pictures of St Luke were destined for the altars of these communities; Rogier's painting was probably an altarpiece for the Brussels guild.
There exist several examples of this composition, identical apart from a few details, of which the one in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, since its restoration in 1932-33, is regarded by most art historians as the original (other examples in Munich, Alte Pinakothek, St Petersburg, Hermitage, and Bruges, Groeninge Museum).
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St Luke Drawing a Portrait of the Madonna
1435
Oil and tempera on panel, 138 x 111 cm
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
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St Luke Drawing a Portrait of the Madonna (detail)
1435
Oil and tempera on panel
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
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St Luke Drawing a Portrait of the Madonna
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Oil on canvas transferred from wood, 103 x 109 cm
The Hermitage, St. Petersburg
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St Luke Drawing a Portrait of the Madonna (detail)
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Oil on canvas transferred from wood
The Hermitage, St. Petersburg
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St Luke Drawing a Portrait of the Madonna (detail)
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Oil on canvas transferred from wood
The Hermitage, St. Petersburg
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St Luke Drawing a Portrait of the Madonna (detail)
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Oil on canvas transferred from wood
The Hermitage, St. Petersburg
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St Luke Drawing the Portrait of the Madonna
c. 1450
Oil on oak panel, 138 x 110 cm
Alte Pinakothek, Munich
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St Luke Drawing the Portrait of the Madonna
c. 1450
Oil on oak panel
Alte Pinakothek, Munich
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St Luke Drawing the Portrait of the Madonna
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Oil on oak panel, 133 x 107 cm
Groeninge Museum, Bruges
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