Jan Gossaert (Jean Gossart)
NG1888
Virgin and Child
Oil on oak panel, (arch-topped), 30.7 x 24.3 cm
Inscription and provenance
Inscription
GE.3. MVLIERIS SEMEN IHS. SERPENTIS CAPVT CONTRIVIT (Genesis 3, Jesus the seed of the woman has bruised the head of the serpent).
This inscription is discussed in Iconography.
Provenance
The picture was in the collection of Edmond Beaucousin (1806–1866), Paris. His collection of 46 paintings was purchased in 1860 for the Gallery; NG1888 was one of the 11 pictures considered ‘superfluous’ and offered to the National Galleries of Scotland and Ireland. Six, including NG1888, were selected for Dublin and sent there on 15 June 1860.1 They were returned to London in 1926.
Further Sections
- Introduction
- Inscription and provenance
- Exhibitions and versions
- Engraving
- Technical notes
- Description
- Iconography
- Attribution and date
- The first owners of NG1888
1. Campbell and Dunkerton 1996, pp. 164–5 and references; Wornum’s Diary, 15 June 1860.