Acquired by the father of the current owner, circa 1960.

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This work on fine linen has been lined and supported by an oak panel, but it is not mounted on the panel. This method of support is unusual but not harmful. The grain of the fabric is quite visible, particularly in the face and in the figure, but there do not appear to be any restorations that have been added to reduce any of this thinness. The gilding in the surrounding areas seems to be unrestored and still very effective. The work may be slightly dirty, and the figure is very dully varnished. At the very least, a light cleaning and perhaps a slightly more saturating varnish to the figure would make the picture more presentable. This varnish would hopefully add a little more depth to the face of the Madonna.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Originally produced in great quantity, surviving paintings in tempera on linen from this period are quite rare. This particular composition appears to have gained popularity at the end of the fifteenth century, owing to the numerous versions which are extant.¹ M. J. Friedländer suggested that these paintings were reproduced after a miracle–working painting of the Virgin and Child in Germany, from which numerous versions were given to pilgrims. Friedländer also suggested that the original conception of the composition may have been created by a confraternity on the borders of France and Flanders, similar to those commissioned annually by the confraternity of Notre–Dame du Puy at Amiens.²  Extant examples all appear to have been made in the same workshop, but seemingly by several independent artists³, and well known examples can be found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (acc. no. 45.170.1); the Thyssen–Borenemisza Collection, Lugano (formerly National Museum, Munich); the Louvre, Paris; and the Royal Collection, Hampton Court. Though these additional versions all seem to originate from the same studio, and from around the turn of the sixteenth century, the location of such a studio remains uncertain. While both the Louvre and Metropolitan Museum of Art versions have traditionally been catalogued as School of Antwerp, both the Royal Collection and Thyssen pictures have been associated with anonymous German hands.⁴ 

Though the inscriptions on the sides and base of the linen have suffered (the bottom register line also has been cut), they appear to have once matched those found on the Metropolitan Museum of Art version, albeit with a slightly shifted position, which read: "Ave·regina·celorum·ave·domina·angelorum·salve·radix·sancta·ex·qua·mundo·lux·[est]·orta· (trans: Hail to thee, O Queen of Heaven; hail, Mistress of Angels; hail, root and gateway through whom the light has risen upon the world. [From a Compline antiphon]); (base) Beata·es[t]·maria·qu[a]e·omniu[m]·p[o]rtasti / creatorem·genuisti·eum·qui·te fecit / et·inaeternum·permane[s] Virgo (Blessed art thou, O Mary the Virgin, who didst bear the creator of all things. Thou broughtest forth him who made thee and remainest a virgin forever)"

1. At least eight surviving works executed on linen, and three oil on panel are known (see M. Ainsworth, From Van Eyck to Bruegel: Early Netherlandish Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1998, p. 252).
2. L. Cust, "Franco-Flemish School: Divine Mother", Burlington Magazine II, 1907, p. 232.
3. Ainsworth 1998, op. cit., p. 254
4. (Royal Collection) Catalogue of the Exhibition of the King's Pictures, Royal Academy, London, 1946–47, p. 68, no. 70; (Louvre) J. Foucart, Catalogue des peintures flamandes et hollandaises du musée du Louvre, Paris 2009, p. 41; (Thyssen)  R. J. Heinemann, Sammlung Schloss Rohoncz, 1958, p. 78, no. 308.