MEMLING, Hans
(b. ca. 1440, Seligenstadt, d. 1494, Bruges)

Virgin and Child with St Anthony the Abbot and a Donor

1472
Oil on wood, 93 x 55 cm
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

In 1472 Memling first dated two of his paintings. The way the dates are inscribed recalls the style of Jan van Eyck. The Standing Virgin and Child with donor and St Anthony in Ottawa has the date painted in white numerals on the rear wall of the room, as in Van Eyck's Arnolfini wedding portrait. The same date, now consisting of yellow metal figures in relief on a reddish-brown marbled frame, is painted in trompe-l'oeil on the Portrait of Gilles Joye in Williamstown.