MASTER of the Parrot
(active 1525-50 in Antwerp)

Virign and Child in a Panoramic Landscape

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Oil on panel, 62 x 40 cm
Private collection

Parrots were exotic in mediaeval Europe and therefore highly prized in princely courts, but only rarely depicted by artists. Generally green and not clearly distinguished from the parakeet, parrots symbolise young love. However, due to the parrot's ability, according to virtually all mediaeval zoological treatises and encyclopaedia, to utter the word ave in greeting, the first word spoken by the archangel Gabriel to Mary during the Annunciation, they were also associated with the Virgin as an allegorical symbol of her purity and virginity.