Virgin and Child

Set within an elegant medieval frame with Gothic tracery, Pieter Claeissins’ Holy Family is more than a simple glorification of Virgin and Child, despite the prominence of the pair. The presence of Joseph hewing wood in the background suggests that we are looking at a rendition of the Holy Family. The painting features young Virgin Mary, clad in a blue mantle and white headscarf, holding the infant Christ child in her lap. They are seated out-of-doors on a low wall, framed by sixteenth-century Flemish houses in the distance. Mary sweetly gazes down at her Child while gently holding his foot. The single window with stone tracery in the form of a Latin cross hints at Christ’s eventual crucifixion.