Label: The Virgin Mary tenderly squeezes Jesus’s foot while the infant examines a cluster of nuts that have begun to burst their husks, an allusion to his divinity only superficially obscured by his human form. Elements surrounding the pair—from the cruciform window tracery to the various plants—carry symbolic meaning related to Christ’s incarnation and birth through Mary, as well as her sorrow over his impending death. Bruges held a strong attachment to the devotional imagery and pictorial styles developed by its painters in the late 1400s, and Claeissens’s altarpiece exemplifies the city’s traditional approach toward religious images for Catholic use.
Exhibition label from "Image in Dispute: Dutch & Flemish Art from the Haggerty Museum of Art's Collection," 2023.
Exhibition History: Old Masters from the Haggerty: Re-Seeing the Collection, Haggerty Museum of Art, 04/24/2008 - 12/07/2008
Images of the Virgin Mary, Haggerty Museum of Art, 01/16/2013 - 07/28/2013
HMA DNA: Collection Highlights, Haggerty Museum of Art, 06/09/2016 - 05/21/2017
Image in Dispute: Dutch and Flemish Art in the Collection of the Haggerty Museum of Art, Haggerty Museum of Art, 08/25/2023 - 05/12/2024
