Virgin and Child in a Domestic Interior

Artist Petrus Christus (Netherlandish, ca. 1410-1475/1476)

Formerly attributed to Petrus Christophsen

Formerly attributed to Lucas van Leyden (Netherlandish, ca. 1494 - 1533)

Dateca.1460-1467

MediumOil on wood panel

DimensionsUnframed: 27 3/8 x 20 1/16 inches (69.53 x 50.96 cm)
Framed: 33 3/4 x 26 7/16 inches (85.73 x 67.15 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number56-51

SignedNone

On View

Not on view

Gallery Location

Collections

European Art

Terms

DescriptionMadonna seated on checkered floor, center foreground; wears red mantle, blue dress edged with white; holds upright on lap unclothed child grasping cross-topped crystal globe in left hand, right hand pointing to open book on lectern beside red-and-green cushions beneath open window, left, through which view of medieval houses; orange on sill. Right, middleground, bed with olive-green hangings; chest, chair, pillows; hooded fireplace, left. Through door, rear, Joseph, in red-brown garment, blue cowl, seen entering, staff in left hand, rosary in right. Beamed ceiling, brass chandelier.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Exposition retrospective - Tableaux anciens empruntés aux galeries particulières, Palais des Champs-Elysees, Paris, May 1866, no. 24.

Special Exhibition: Acquisitions 1956, The Nelson Gallery and Atkins Museum, Kansas City, MO, April 1957, no. 56-51.

Masterpieces of Flemish Art: Van Eyck to Bosch, Detroit Institute of Arts, October-December 1960, no. 14.

Genre, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, April 5-May 15, no. 4.

Petrus Christus: Renaissance Master of Bruges, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, April 14-July 31, 1994, no. 20.

Gallery Label

This painting is one of the masterpieces of the Nelson-Atkins collection. The realism of the meticulously rendered domestic rather than religious interior, with its closely observed details-such as the chandelier and canopy bed-is typical of the Northern Renaissance. Typical of Devotio Moderna, a 15th-century religious reform movement that prefigured the Protestant Reformation, the focus is on the individual's direct experience of God in everyday life, without Church ritual or a priest to mediate. The townscape glimpsed through the windows is reminiscent of the buildings of Bruges, the artist's native city, which looks much the same today. The triangular shape created by the contours of Virgin and Child may reflect the Italian Renaissance ideas of order, geometry and balance, an influence exchanged through trading links between Bruges and Italy.

Provenance

Marie Caroline de Bourbon, Duchesse de Berry (1798-1870), Palazzo Vendramin-Calergi, Venice, as by Luca di Leida (Lucas van Leyden), by 1856-1865;

Purchased at her sale, Catalogue des tableaux anciens et modernes composant la galerie du palais Vendramini, à Venise, et appartenant à Mme. la Duchesse de Berry, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, April 19, 1865, lot 434, as by Lucas de Leyde, Intérieur de la maison de la sainte Famille, by Roger marquis de Podenas, on behalf of M. le Comte de la Ferronnays (d. 1867), Paris, 1865–at least 1866;

Count Paul Demidoff, 2nd Prince of San Donato (1839-1885), Polverosa, Italy, by 1869;

Purchased at his sale, Tableaux Anciens et Modernes, Objets d’Art et de Curiosité, Statue antique en marbre blanc; Six magnifiques Colonnes en marbre vert antique. . . appartenant à M. D***, Hôtel Demidoff, Paris, April 1–3, 1869, lot 3, as by Petrus Christophsen, La Vierge, l’Enfant Jésus et Saint Joseph, by Étienne-François Haro (1827–1897), Paris, 1869;

Possibly Henri, Comte de Chambord (1820-1883), 1873;

Duc de Blacas [1];

With Frederick Mont and Company, New York, by 1956 [2];

Purchased from Mont by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1956.

NOTES:

[1] The Duc de Blacas is listed in the provenance included in Frederick Mont and Co.’s invoice to NAMA dated March 29, 1956. This may be Pierre de Blacas d’Aulps (1853-1937). According to Patrick J. Kelleher, Curator of European Art, in a letter to Erwin Panofsky, March 5, 1956, NAMA curatorial files, the painting was bought from a descendant of the Duchess de Berry in Switzerland.

[2] According to the Frederick Mont and Co. invoice dated March 29, 1956, NAMA curatorial files, Mont and Co. was a joint owner of the painting. The other owner(s) are currently unknown.

Published References

Duchesse de Berry sale manuscript, April 19, 1865, Archives de Paris, NAMA curatorial files.

Catalogue des tableaux anciens et modernes composant la galerie du palais Vendramini, à Venise, et appartenant à Mme la Duchesse de Berry (Paris: Charles Pillet et Ferdinand Laneuville, 1865), 96, as by Lucas de Leyde, Intérieur de la maison de la sainte Famille.

Exposition retrospective - Tableaux anciens empruntés aux galeries particulières, exh. cat. (Paris: Imprimerie J. Claye, 1866),15, as by Christophsen.

Alfred Michiels, Histoire de la peinture flamande depuis ses débuts jusqu'en 1864, 2^nd ed., vol. 3 (Paris: A. Lacroix, Verboeckhoven et Cie, 1866), 420-21, as by Pierre Cristus.

Francesco Zanotto, Nuovissima guida di Venezia e delle isole della sua laguna (1856; repr., Venice: Presso Gio. Brizeghel, 1866), 359, as by Lucas van Leyden.

Tableaux Anciens et Modernes, Objets d’Art et de Curiosité, Statue antique en marbre blanc; Six magnifiques Colonnes en marbre vert antique. . . appartenant à M. D*** (Paris: Charles Pillet, Haro, et Charles Mannheim, 1869), 6, as by Petrus Christophsen, La Vierge, l’Enfant Jésus et Saint Joseph.

Letter from Patrick J. Kelleher to E. Panofsky, March 5, 1956, NAMA curatorial files.

Letter from E. Panofsky to Patrick J. Kelleher, March 8, 1956, NAMA curatorial files.

Letter from F. Mont to L. Sickman, March 29, 1956, NAMA curatorial files.

Letter from F. Mont to L. Sickman, March 30, 1956, NAMA curatorial files.

Letter from E. Panofsky to Patrick J. Kelleher, May 21, 1956, NAMA curatorial files.

Letter from K. M. Bookmeyer, August 30, 1956, NAMA curatorial files.

Patrick J. Kelleher, "Recent Acquisition," Gallery News (The Nelson Gallery and Atkins Museum) 24, no. 3 (December 1956): unpaginated, (repro.), as 1445-55.

Winifred Shields, ''Rare Madonna Painting Comes to Nelson Gallery," Kansas City Star 77, no. 87 (December 16, 1956): 1D, (repro.).

Patrick J. Kelleher, “‘Madonna and Child in a Gothic Interior’ by Petrus Christus in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art,” The Art Quarterly 20, no. 1 (Spring 1957): 113, 115-16, (repro.), as 1445-55.

F. Neugass, "Entering Public Domain," Art News 55, no. 9 (January 1957): 34, 35, (repro.), as 1450-55.

"Recently Acquired by an American Gallery: 'The Madonna and Child in a Gothic Interior' - A Hitherto Unrecorded Masterpiece by Petrus Christus (c. 1410-72)," The Illustrated London News (January 26, 1957): 143, (repro.).

"Paintings: Nelson Gallery Acquires Rare Madonna Painting," Hobbies-The Magazine for Collectors 61, no. 12 (February 1957): 36.

''Kunstnachrichten aus USA," Die Weltkunst 27, no. 4 (February 15, 1957): 5.

"St. Joseph and the Rosary in Art," Dominicana 42, no. 1 (March 1957): 4-6, (repro.).

"Special Exhibition: Acquisitions 1956,'' Gallery News (Nelson Gallery and Atkins Museum) 24, no. 7 (April 1957): unpaginated.

V. Bruncel [G. Marlier], "Une découverte sensationnelle: Un chef d'oeuvre inconnu de Petrus Christus au Musée de Kansas City,'' Les Beaux-Arts, no. 768 (April 12, 1957): 5, (repro.), as ca. 1450.

Josua Bruyn, Van Eyck Problemen (Utrecht: Kunsthistorisch Instituut der Rijksuniversiteit, 1957), 108-9, 115, 148, (repro.), as 1445 or slightly later.

Robert A. Koch, "A Rediscovered Painting by Petrus Christus," Connoisseur 140, no. 566, (January 1958): 271-76. (repro.).

"Art from the Convention Center," Journal of the American Association of University Women 53, no. 1 (October 1959): 37, (repro.).

J. L. Smith, "Treasures of Christmas Art in America," Christmas: An Annual of Literature and the Arts (December 1959): unpaginated, (repro.).

Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4^th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 76, 79, 153, 259, (repro.), as 1450-55.

R. F. C., "Kansas City: Venticinque anni d' attività del Nelson Gallery Atkins Museum," Emporium: Rivista Mensile lllustrata d'Arte e di Cultura, 132, no. 787 (July 1960): 31, (repro.).

R. Fabri, "Here and There," Pictures on Exhibit 24, no. 1 (October 1960): 37, (repro.).

Joy Hakanson, “Museum Makes Game of Flemish Lectures,” The Detroit News (October 16, 1960): 3G.

Joy Hakanson, “Age-Old Story in Paintings,” The Detroit News (December 25, 1960): 3B.

M. J. Folie et al., Flanders in the Fifteenth Century; Art and Civilization: Catalogue of the Exhibition ‘Masterpieces of Flemish Art: Van Eyck to Bosch,' exh. cat. (Detroit, MI: Detroit Institute of Arts, 1960), 93-98, 275, (repro.).

Eloise Spaeth, American Art Museums and Galleries: An Introduction to Looking (New York: Harper, 1960) 157, 159, (repro.).

Pierre du Colombier, "Antonello de Messine: Un coin du voile se lève sur son oeuvre," Connaissance des Arts, no. 121 (March 1962): 99, 101, (repro.), as 1450-55.

Catalogue 100: Thirty-five Manuscripts: Including the St. Blasien Psalter, the Llangattock Hours, the Gotha Missal, the Roger Bacon (Voynich) Cipher MS (New York: H. P. Kraus, 1962), 60, 62, as ca. 1450.

Clement Greenberg, "The Early Flemish Masters,'' Arts Yearbook 6 (1962): 62, (repro.).

John Canaday, "The Flemish Eye: A Portfolio of Details from Flemish Paintings," Horizon Magazine 8, no. 1 (Winter 1966): 104-05, (repro.).

Giorgio T. Faggin, I Maestri del colore: Petrus Christus, no. 185 (1966): 2, 4, 6, (repro.).

Max J. Friedländer, Early Netherlandish Painting, vol. 1, trans. Heinz Norden (Leiden: A. W. Sijthoff, 1967), 107, (repro.).

John L. Ward, "A New Look at the Friedsam Annunciation," The Art Bulletin 50, no. 2 (June 1968): 187, as ca. 1450.

Charles D. Cuttler, Northern Paintings: From Pucelle to Bruegel/Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Sixteenth Centuries (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1968), 133, 488n3 (chap. 7), (repro.), as ca. 1457-60.

Lola B. Malkis Gellman, "Petrus Christus," (PhD diss., The John Hopkins University, 1970), 36-37, 39, 213-20, 222-23, 247, 253-54, 256, 273, 275, 301n94, 350n129, 352n139, 438-41, 491, (repro.), as before 1452.

Charles Sterling, "Observations on Petrus Christus," The Art Bulletin 53 (March 1971): 11n42, 11n46, 26n89, as late 1450s.

Peter H. Schabacker, ''Letters to the Editor," The Art Bulletin 53, no. 2 (June 1971): 282, as ca. 1454.

Martin Davies, Rogier van der Weyden; An Essay, with a Critical Catalogue of Paintings Assigned to Him and to Robert Campin (London: Electa Editrice, 1972), 214-17.

Joel Morgan Upton, "Petrus Christus [Monographic Study of a Fifteenth-Century Flemish Painter, with Critical Catalogue]," (PhD diss., Bryn Mawr College, 1972), 100-01, 111, 129n75, 164-67, 188n56-58, 189n59-63, 280, 320-24, 342, 346, 361, 385, 399, 404, 410, 423, 466, (repro.), as 1457.

Barbara G. Lane, “Immaculist Cycle in the Hours of Catherine of Cleves,” Oud Holland 87 (1973): 198n63.

Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 1, Art of the Occident, 5^th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 95, 257, (repro.), about 1450-55.

Burkhard Richter, "Untersuchungen zum Werk des Petrus Christus" (PhD diss., Universität Heidelberg, 1974), 60, 70, 79, 86, 136, 178-79, 322-26, 402n79, 406n118, 474, (repro.), as 1450s.

Peter H. Schabacker, Petrus Christus (Utrecht: Haentjens, Dekker and Gumbert, 1974), 34n24, 46-47, 49-50, 73, 102-05, 106, 120, 122, (repro.), as 1452-57.

James Mitchell Collier, "Linear Perspective in Flemish Painting and the Art of Petrus Christus and Dirk Bouts” (PhD diss., The University of Michigan, 1975), xviii, 112, 128, 138, 163, 169n57, 171n94, 254, (repro.).

Colin Eisler, Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian (Oxford: Phaidon Press, 1977), 51.

Ursula Panhans-Bühler, Eklektizismus und Originalität im Werk des Petrus Christus (Vienna: Verlag Adolf Holzhausens, 1978), 111-14, 116, 122, (repro.).

James M. Collier, "The Kansas City Petrus Christus: Its Importance and Dating,'' Bulletin (The Nelson Gallery and Atkins Museum) 5, no. 5 (September 1979): 23-27, (repro.), as 1472.

"You'll Be Interested to Know...," Gallery Events (The Nelson Gallery and Atkins Museum) (October 1979), unpaginated.

Maria Grazia Paolini, "Problemi antonelliani - I rapporti con la pittura fiamminga," Storia dell'Arte, nos. 38-40 (December 1980): 163, as 1457.

Ann Tzeutschler Lurie, "A Newly Discovered Eyckian ‘St. John the Baptist in a Landscape,’" Cleveland Museum of Art Bulletin 67, no. 4 (April 1981): 115n34.

Albert Chatelet, "Christus Petrus," Larousse Dictionary of Painters (New York: Larousse, 1981), 63.

Jeffrey Ruda, Filippo Lippi Studies: Naturalism, Style and Iconography in Early Renaissance Art (New York: Garland, 1982), 19, 34n34, 38n55, 180, (repro.), as 1450s.

Ross E. Taggart and L. Sickman, Genre, exh. cat. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1983), 9.

Jeffrey Ruda, "Flemish Painting and the Early Renaissance in Florence: Questions of Influence," Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 47, no. 1 (1984), 220-22, 231, (repro.), as 1450s.

Donald Hoffmann, "Nelson Buys 'St. Sebastian' for Top Price," The Kansas City Star (October 13, 1985): 1A, 18A.

James M. Collier, "The 'Pearl of Brabant' Reattributed to Dirk Bouts," Pantheon 44 (1986): 12, 14n15, as 1472.

John Oliver Hand and Martha Wolff, Early Netherlandish Painting: The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue (Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1986), 48, 54, 55.

Ellen R. Goheen, The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1988), 16, 37-39, (repro.), as ca. 1450-55.

Joel M. Upton, Petrus Christus: His Place in Fifteenth-Century Flemish Painting: A Study of the Changing Relationship of Painter; Painting, and Patron (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1990), 65, 76, 77n70, 79-84, 87, 105, (repro.).

Veronique Sintobin, "Coaxing Petrus Christus from the Shadow of Van Eyck," The Journal of Art 4, no. 3 (March 1991): 66, (repro.).

Peter Humfrey, Carpaccio: Catalogo completo dei dipinti (Florence: Cantini, 1991), 81.

Letter from F. R. Bailey to M. W. Ainsworth, March 31, 1992, NAMA curatorial files.

Guy C. Bauman and Walter A. Liedtke, Flemish Paintings in America: A Survey of Early Netherlandish and Flemish Paintings in the Public Collections of North America (Antwerp: Fonds Mercator, 1992), 52-53, (repro.).

Michael Churchman and Scott Erbes, High Ideals and Aspirations: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1933-1993 (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 73, (repro.).

Jeffrey Ruda, Fra Filippo Lippi: Life and Work with a Complete Catalogue (London: Phaidon Press, 1993), 128, as 1450s.

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 27, 128, 140, (repro.).

Paul Jeromack, "New Light on Old Masters,'' Art & Antiques 2, no. 5 (May 1994): 75-76, (repro.).

Lorne Campbell, "Exhibition Reviews: New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Petrus Christus," The Burlington Magazine 136, no. 1098 (September 1994): 639.

John Oliver Hand, "Exhibition Reviews: Petrus Christus at the Metropolitan," Apollo 140, no. 392 (October 1994): 50, (repro.).

Maryan W. Ainsworth et al, Petrus Christus: Renaissance Master of Bruges, exh. cat. (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994), 48, 51, 53, 58, 62, 104, 145, 154, 161, 164, 167-68, 170-76, 179, (repro.).

Brigitte de Patoul and Roger van Shoute, eds., Les primitifs flamands et leur temps (Wesmael, Belgium: La Renaissance du Livre, 1994), 374-76, (repro.).

Maryan. W. Ainsworth, ed., Petrus Christus in Renaissance Bruges: An Interdisciplinary Approach (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1995), 1, 57, 144.

Reves d’alcôves: La chambre au cours des siècles (Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux, 1995), 54-55, (repro.).

Jean-Claude Frère, Les primitifs flamands (Paris: P. Terrail, 1996), 92-93, (repro.).

Jane Turner, ed., "Christus, Petrus," The Dictionary of Art, vol. 7 (New York: Grove, 1996), 239-40, (repro.), as ca. 1450-60.

Lutgarde Bessemans et al., Leven te Leuven in de late Middeleeuwen, exh. cat. (Leuven, Belgium: Uitgeverij Peeters, 1998), 242, (repro.).

Lorne Campbell, National Gallery Catalogues: The Fifteenth-Century Netherlandish Schools (London: National Gallery Publications, 1998), 178, 186-87, 204n22, 206n50, 207n71, (repro.).

“European Paintings Move to Temporary Storage,” Newsletter (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) (March 2002): 9, (repro.).

Till-Holger Borchert et al., The Age of Van Eyck, the Mediterranean World and Early Netherlandish Painting, 1430-1530, exh. cat. (New York: Thames and Hudson, 2002), 31, 231, (repro.).

Newsletter (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) (Summer 2003): 9, (repro.).

“No More Blue Skies,” Nest Magazine 158, no. 22 (Fall 2003): xxiii, (repro.).

M. L. Koster, "The Arnolfini Double Portrait: A Simple Solution," Apollo Magazine 158, no. 499 (September 2003): 6, 10, (repro.).

Christian Heck et al., L'art flamand et hollandais: Le siècle des Primitifs, 1380-1520 (Paris: Citadelles and Mazenod, 2003), 199, 200-01, (repro.).

Roger Ward, “Eye on the Edge: Choosing Frames for Old Master Paintings,” notes taken by Lee Pentecost (lecture, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, March 13, 2003), 5.

Burton L. Dunbar, The Collections of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: German and Netherlandish Paintings, 1450-1600 (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2005), 12-13, 18n69, 20, 23, 26, 28-29, 116, 118, 121-47, 154, 278, (repro.).

Master Paintings and Sculpture: Part II (New York: Sotheby’s, January 29, 2015), 36, (repro.).

Julian Zugazagoitia and Laura Spencer. Director's Highlights: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Celebrating 90 Years, ed. Kaitlyn Bunch (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024), 67, (repro.).

Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.