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Circle of the Master of Liesborn, 'The Virgin and Child with a Donor', about 1475-90

Key facts
Full title The Virgin and Child with a Donor
Artist Circle of the Master of Liesborn
Artist dates active second half of the 15th century
Date made about 1475-90
Medium and support oil on wood
Dimensions 118.8 × 51.5 cm
Acquisition credit Bought, 1854
Inventory number NG2151
Location Not on display
Collection Main Collection
The Virgin and Child with a Donor
Circle of the Master of Liesborn

The Virgin Mary, who is being crowned with a wreath of roses by two angels, stands holding the infant Christ in her arms. A man wearing the black habit, or uniform, of a Benedictine monk kneels on the tiled floor at the Virgin’s feet, and holds a scroll inscribed in Latin with a prayer to her. He commissioned the altarpiece and may have belonged to the monastery in Herzebrock, Westphalia, where the painting comes from.

The monk’s head is on a piece of wood that was inserted and painted in the nineteenth century. The original fragment survives in the Westphalian State Museum of Art and Culture in Münster, where other sections of the altarpiece are housed.

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