School of Bruges, circa 1500

Madonna and Child with Saint Bernard of Clairvaux,
oil on panel, 34 x 53 cm, framed

Provenance:
sale, Fischer, Lucerne, 16 June 1959, lot 1958 (as Jean Bellegambe);
Private collection, Germany

The traditional iconography of the Madonna Lactans shown with a male saint developed in Central Europe in the late fifteenth century as a result of the historical dependence of the Reformist Cistercian order on the emergence of Marian veneration. The depiction derives from a vision of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, according to which he received a single drop of milk from the Mother of God. The motif can primarily be found in small-sized pictures intended for private devotion, such as in a painting by Joos van Cleve depicting the saint together with the Madonna Lactans against an architectural backdrop. This architectural framework is repeated in the present painting, which shows the saint in prayer wearing a cowl and carrying a staff while kneeling before the Madonna, with a picturesque mountain landscape extending beyond.