GOSSART, Jan
(b. ca. 1478, Maubeuge, d. 1532, Middelburg)

The Norfolk Triptych (central panel)

1525-30
Oil on oak panel, 48 x 37 cm
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia

The present painting, assumed to be the central panel of the triptych of which the side wings representing the donors are in Brussels, depicts the Virgin and Child. The painting shows the synthesis of Italian and Northern styles that Gossart achieved in his final works. The Virgin's idealized face and form and the Child's heroic frame reflects the influence of Leonardo da Vinci and the Italianate Madonna paintings of Albrecht Dürer. Yet the details reveal Gossart's peculiarly Netherlandish taste for ornamental embellishment.