Holy Family

This view of the Holy Family in an interior is filled with the trappings of a comfortable bourgeois existence. Its unknown maker was probably working from a repertory of pattern drawings derived from the most innovative Netherlandish painters of the early 15th century, Rogier van der Weyden and Jan van Eyck. The pose of the Virgin and the buffet with its brass and pewter vessels are particularly indebted to their work. At the same time, the painting’s dry style and its use of a spruce rather than an oak panel for the support are indications that it was made in Southern Germany.