The Virgin and Child Seated at the Foot of a Tree

The Virgin and Child Seated at the Foot of a Tree

Jan Gossart (called Mabuse)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

As he so often did in his paintings, Gossart combined Renaissance and Gothic motifs in his prints. Here, the figure types derive from Italian Renaissance sculpture. Most notably, the child's unusual gesture, with his arm turned backward, derives from The Madonna of the Steps, a relief by Michelangelo (1490–92, Casa Buonarroti, Florence). The nervous folds of the drapery are typical of Northern Gothic art. The theme itself derives from a number of prints created by Gossart's German contemporary Albrecht Dürer, who visited the Netherlands in 1520–21 and consequently inspired a number of Netherlandish artists to make prints after his work.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Virgin and Child Seated at the Foot of a TreeThe Virgin and Child Seated at the Foot of a TreeThe Virgin and Child Seated at the Foot of a TreeThe Virgin and Child Seated at the Foot of a TreeThe Virgin and Child Seated at the Foot of a Tree

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.