Madonna and child

The painting in portrait format shows Mary holding the infant Jesus in her lap. Both look attentively towards the viewer. The child’s right hand is raised in blessing, while his left hand holds the orb as a sign of royal dignity. The infant Jesus is naked, wrapped only in a swaddle. The hint of a halo behind both heads emphasises the divine nature of mother and child. Mary is wearing a white blouse with a buttoned red top over it. A shiny grey robe is draped around mother and child, lightly enveloping them. The background is filled with columned architecture. The painting is unsigned. A copperplate engraving by Schelte à Bolswert, which is identical to the painting apart from minor changes in the background and the reversed image, names Erasmus II Quellinus as the artist. Quellinus was at times a close collaborator of Rubens’ workshop, a master in Antwerp and the official city painter after Rubens’ death. The paint application on the painting is thin, and the grain of the wood shines through in the raking light. Both the composition and the painting technique point to proximity to Rubens, who repeatedly treated the subject of the Madonna with the Child Jesus.