The National Gallery acquires Large 16th-Century Mystery Altarpiece at a Special Price of £16.4 Million

With the Virgin and Child at its centre, this painting also depicts two saints, two playful angels, a bawdy scene with a naughty child on one of the column capitals and a magnificent slobbering dragon. The painting is of outstanding importance even though its authorship is unknown – even whether the painter was Netherlandish or French is up for debate.

Dating from about 1510, 'The Virgin and Child with Saints Louis and Margaret' was acquired from a private collection by private treaty sale brokered by Sotheby’s, at a special price of £16.4 million. The purchase has been made possible thanks to the support of the American Friends of the National Gallery.

This picture is the latest acquisition of the Gallery, which is celebrating its 200th anniversary during 2024‒25. It will go on display from 10 May as part of C C Land: The Wonder of Art, the Gallery’s biggest and most ambitious rehang of its collection displays and the opening of the newly transformed Sainsbury Wing.

'The Virgin and Child with Saints Louis and Margaret' served as an altarpiece, perhaps for the urban priory of Drongen (Tronchiennes) in Ghent in modern Belgium, where it was first documented in 1602.

Enthroned in the middle of an open-air chapel, the Virgin and Child are flanked by two music-making angels, the holy king of France Saint Louis, and Saint Margaret. Sumptuously dressed, she rises unharmed from the broken shell of the dragon that swallowed her. Of the two angels, one plays a mouth harp while the other holds a song book, inscribed with an identifiable Marian hymn, Ave Regina Caelorum, Mater regis angelorum. (Hail, Queen of Heaven, Hail, Lady of Angels.) The musical notation, however, is fanciful.

The painting is full of wildly inventive details. Some are sombre, such as the bare wooden steps and nail heads that foretell Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross. Others are unusual, such as the mouth harp played by the angel at left, a sound hardly associated with celestial harmony. Others still are humorous, such as the unruly child showing us his behind on the top right capital. 

With its lack of artist attribution, this painting challenges art historians’ tendency to focus on names and demonstrates that for the late medieval and Renaissance periods, anonymity can intersect with extraordinary quality.

The panel’s overall eccentricity and the dramatically foreshortened faces of the saints and angels are reminiscent of the early work of Jan Gossaert (active 1508; died 1532) whoseAdoration of the Kings is in the National Gallery’s collection. The composition and versatile execution – alternating smoothly painted areas and minute details with more dynamic passages – also pay homage to the Netherlandish tradition of Jan van Eyck (active 1422; died 1441) and Hugo van der Goes (active 1467; died 1482.) The overall sense of plasticity, monumentality, and the strong shadows recall the work of French painters like Jean Hey (active 1482; died after 1504.)  The Netherlandish hypothesis is supported by the painting’s Baltic oak panel, since French artists tended to use locally sourced oak.

Examination of the panel via dendrochronology indicates that the painting was executed after 1483. The design of the chain of the Order of Saint Michael worn by Saint Louis, with its double knots or ‘aiguillettes’, was modified by Francis I in 1516, implying that the picture was painted before that year. A dating of about 1510 seems appropriate on stylistic grounds.

'The Virgin and Child with Saints Louis and Margaret' is the latest of the Gallery’s Bicentenary acquisitions following After the Audience by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema; Poussin’s Eucharist; and The Full-Length Mirror by Eva Gonzalès.

Emma Capron, Curator of Early Netherlandish and German Paintings, at the National Gallery, says: ‘This is a rare and exciting addition to the National Gallery’s superb collection of Early Netherlandish Paintings. This altarpiece is the work of a talented and highly original artist, and I hope that ongoing research and the painting’s public display will help solve this conundrum in the future.’  

Main Image: Unknown Netherlandish or French artist, 'The Virgin and Child with Saints Louis and Margaret', about 1510