The Visitation of the Virgin to Saint Elizabeth

This small painting portraying the Visitation of the Virgin to Saint Elizabeth would have been part of an altarpiece. In the foreground are the scene's two key figures, in front of the entrance to a stone building. Mary is accompanied by a young maid dressed in the style of the time, wearing a plaited headdress, and carrying a basket and some hyssop. Mary is sumptuously dressed in a brocaded, red velvet dress and a blue robe dotted with gold decorations, all of which have been delicately gilded using a technique known as "estofado." Saint Elizabeth is wearing a red bliaut over a green dress, and their faces have been drawn in great detail and delicately glazed. The landscape is quite schematic, with a few very detailed little flowers in the foreground.