774. MADONNA AND CHILD.
Unknown (Flemish School: 15th century).
See also (p. xx)
On the Madonna's right is St. Peter; on her left St. Paul, an arrangement common in early art, St. Peter and St. Paul being the two chief apostles on whom the Church of Christ is built. St. Paul offers a pink to the infant Christ. Flowers were consecrated to the Virgin, and the early painters chose those they liked best to be emblems of love and beauty. Notice the design on the stuff fixed at the back of the Madonna's throne; it is a beautiful example of the ornamental work of the time in northern Europe. The picture was formerly ascribed to Van der Goes—an artist whose only certainly known picture is the altar-piece in the hospital of S. Maria Nuova in Florence,—and is by some ascribed to Bouts (see under 783).