UNKNOWN MASTER, Flemish
(last quarter of the 15th century)

Nativity

1475-1500
Oil on oak panel, 35,8 x 30,5 cm
Institute of Arts, Detroit

The composition was inspired by the central panel of the Bladelin triptych (Berlin, Staatliche Museen) by Rogier van der Weyden. But as with Memling, the Virgin is here in an attitude of prayer (Nativity, Prado, Madrid; Floreins triptych, Memlingmuseum, Bruges). Formerly attributed to Van der Weyden and the Master of the Legend of St Catherine, it came to be regarded as a Bruges work by most art historians who expressed a view about it.