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

Virgin Mary, Christ Blessing, and St John the Baptist (Deesis)

1525-30
Oil on paper attached to oak panel, 122 x 133 cm
Museo del Prado, Madrid

Although this painting is ultimately based on an ancient Byzantine-icon type, its direct model was Jan van Eyck's Ghent Altarpiece. Gossart assimilated the principal figures from the interior of the altarpiece, but he made significant modifications.

The Deesis must have been installed at a burial site, and it would have served a purpose similar to Rogier van der Weyden's Braque Triptych, also with a Deesis centrepiece, painted as a memorial to Jean Braque.




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