The Visitation

religious

The picture shows a detail of the left wing of the Dijon Altarpiece. The Visitation is not a literal rendering of the Bible story. Broederlam gives us the essence of St Luke's text: Mary, already pregnant with the Infant Jesus, meets her cousin Elizabeth who, although supposedly barren, is now by the grace of God expecting a child in her old age.

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About the Artist

Melchior Broederlam

Netherlandish painter, court painter to Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, from 1387. Documents show that he was a busy and versatile artist, but his only surviving works are two wings from an altarpiece representing The Annunciation and Visitation and The Presentation and Flight into Egypt (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon, 1394-9). They are among the first and finest examples of International Gothic, combining lavish decorative display with realistic touches that look forward to the later development of the Netherlandish School. The figure of St Joseph in The Flight into Egypt, for example, is represented as an authentic peasant.

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