Recto: Virgin and Child, and Saint John the Baptist; Verso: Summary sketches, possibly the Virgin and Child

At first glance, one would recognize this oil sketch as a representation of the canonical image of Madonna and Child with the infant St. John the Baptist. However, the presence of several unusual visual elements make this interpretation less straightforward. The child, standing at Mary’s feet and the angel appearing in the upper right of the picture are alien to the standard Christian iconography. The crown and palm frond, held by the angel are symbols that could signify both power, glory, victory as well as peace. The meaning of the cherries, offered to Mary by the standing child likewise is unclear.[1]

The enigmatic amalgam of motifs and symbols has led scholars to seek an allegorical interpretation of the picture. Comparisons have been drawn with Andrea del Sarto’s allegory of Charity in the Louvre, which equally depicts a seated woman with three children, yet shows notable iconographic differences.[2] Erik Leuschner concludes his article on the Museum’s oil sketch with the statement that the De Backer’s composition was intentionally conceived as multi-interpretable.[3] This kind of imagery, which at the same time represents and confronts two closely related subjects would have appealed to the contemporary audience for its intriguing iconographic complexity.[4]

The oil sketch is part of a small group of works, linked to paintings generally attributed to Jacob De Backer. Very little is known about this enigmatic Antwerp artist, who may have been the leading member of a busy workshop that turned out religious, mythological, and allegorical compositions. Many of these exist in multiple versions, and it is possible that sketches like the one shown here served as models from which subsequent iterations were derived. It is also possible, however, that the work was considered a finished painting in its own right, or that it served as a ricordo of a canvas or panel version after it had left the workshop. The best painting related to the Museum's sketch is now preserved in a church at Boissise-la-Bertrand, south of Paris.[5]


[1] It has been suggested that this motive possibly was derived from Federico Barocci’s Rest on the Flight to Egypt, which shows St. Joseph picking cherries and offering them to the seated Christ child. Federico Barocci, Rest on the Flight to Egypt, 1570, oil on canvas. Pinacoteca Vaticana, Vatican City, Italy.

[2] Andrea del Sarto, Charity, 1557, oil on panel transferred to canvas, 185 x 137 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris, inv. no. 712.

[3] See for an expansive analysis of this and related works by De Backer: E. Leuschner, ‘A Grisaille Oil Sketch from the "De Backer Group" and Workshop Practices in Sixteenth-Century Antwerp’, The Metropolitan Museum Journal 43 (2008), pp. 99-110.

[4] Leuschner, op. cit., p. 103.

[5] This painting, at the church of Saint-Germain d’Auzerre, is in oil on canvas, 168 x 132 cm. Another version, in black chalk and white heightening is in the Dresden Kupferstichkabinett (inv. no. C533 in C 808,2).