Virgin and Child in a Landscape

This painting is an altarpiece, a devotional image used in a Christian church, and many of the details are religious symbols. The walled garden, for instance, refers to the garden in the Bible’s Song of Songs and is associated with the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ. The flowering plants also refer to Mary: the blue iris to her sorrows, the violets to her humility, and the strawberry plant to her righteousness. The peacock on the gate may signify paradise while the stags represent the human soul and piety. Recent scholarship has revealed that the artist known as the Master of the Embroidered Foliage, for the delicately patterned leaves characteristic of his work, was more likely a group of artists who used the same figures and compositions for a number of similar panel paintings.