Birth of the Virgin

religious

The two panels, depicting the Birth of the Virgin ad the Annunciation, form a pair and relate two episodes from the life of the Virgin. Stylistically they are heavily indebted to the Early Netherlandish painters, such as Jan van Eyck and the Master of Flémalle. The artist has treated The Birth of the Virgin as a domestic scene, filling the room with details and everyday objects.

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About the Artist

Jan de Beer

1475 – 1528

Flemish painter and draughtsman (identical with the Master of the Milan Adoration). He is first mentioned in 1490 in the register of the Antwerp Guild of St Luke, apprenticed to the painter Gillis van Everen (fl 1477-1513). In 1504 de Beer became a master. He subsequently served as alderman of the guild in 1509 and dean in 1515, although he found himself temperamentally unsuited to the position of dean, as is known from a lawsuit he filed in 1519 regarding guild administration. This document also reveals that de Beer participated in the preparations for Charles V's 'Joyous Entry' into Antwerp in 1515 and for the Antwerp Society of Rhetoricians' entry that year in the Malines landjuweel (regional competition of the rhetoricians). In 1510 and 1513 de Beer enrolled apprentices; his son Aert de Beer (c. 1509-before 6 Aug 1540) became an Antwerp master in 1529. The artist is undocumented between 1519 and 1528, by which date he was dead. In 1567 Guicciardini included de Beer in his list of famous Netherlandish painters.

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