Virgin and Child with Sts Catherine, Cecilia, Barbara, and Ursula

religious

This painting, depicting the Virgin seated among four female martyrs, was probably painted for a nunnery. The painter very subtly included the saints' attributes as ornaments on chains around their neck. On the left is Catherine with the wheel on which she was tortured.

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Virgin and Child with Sts Catherine, Cecilia, Barbara, and Ursula

About the Artist

Master Of The Virgo Inter Virgines

Netherlandish painter, named after a picture representing the Virgin Mary surrounded by the virgin saints Barbara, Catherine, Cecilia, and Ursula (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam). He worked in Delft, and his style is reflected in the woodcut illustrations (which he presumably designed) to several books published there between 1482 and 1498. About twenty paintings have been attributed to him, revealing a very distinctive and distinguished artist, who obtained his highly emotional effects through intense colours, desolate landscapes, and gaunt figures. His work is sometimes awkward but always sincere and involving. Two of his finest paintings are The Crucifixion (Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle) and The Entombment (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool).

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