The model for this composition ultimately finds its source in the early 16th-century works of Gerard David, such as The Rest on the Flight into Egypt in the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp,¹ in which the Virgin and Child are set in a similar landscape, on a r൩ocky ledge, with paths receding into a wood, and buildings before a distant view beyond. The elliptical wicker basket found in the present painting also originates in David's work, and recurs in several derivations.

The rather oval face of the Virgin here, however, relates more closely to works by the Master of the Holy Blood, such as the Virgin and Child, now of unknown whereabouts.² The anonymous master painted the triptych of the Lamentation in the possession of the Confraternity of the Holy Blood in Bruges in the first quarter of the 16th century. Friedländer suggests that the artist trained in Antwerp, as he shows a close knowledge of the work of Quinten Massys, but he appears to have produced most of his work in Bruges, where his output reflects the influence of his fellow townsmen Gerard David, Ambrosius Benson and Jan Provost.³ Compositionally, the present work may be compared to the Master of the Holy Blood's version of this subject, recorded by Friedländer as in a private collection.⁴

We are grateful to Till-🐬Holger Borchert for his hel🍌p in the cataloguing of this lot.

¹ 

² 

³ For further discussions on the artist, see M.J. Friedländer, Early Netherlandish Painting, ed. 1974, vol. IXb, pp. 9899; and Primitifs flamands anonymes, exh. cat., Bruges🐬 1969, pp. 74–87 and 233–33.

⁴ 

For more information on the Collection of Sir Peter Jonas, please see: