This large scale devotional picture is likely to have been painted for a Catholic rather than a Protestant patron. This is common amongst Utrecht Caravaggesques whose pictures often had a strongly observed religious subject matter. Unlike the contemporary Italian Baroque, the models were never idealised and there was no prototype for the Virgin or the Christ Child. As a result, there is a powerful realism in the treatment of the subject which could almost be any mother and child. The lighting however, remains caravaggesque and this suggests that the picture comes from the earliest part of the artist’s career in Utrecht after his return from Italy.

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