Virgin of the Rose Garden, between 1475 and 1480

  • Master of the St. Lucy Legend, Flemish

Oil on oak panel

  • Unframed: 31 1/8 × 23 5/8 inches (79.1 × 60 cm)
  • 38 1/8 × 31 5/8 × 3 1/2 inches (96.8 × 80.3 × 8.9 cm)

Founders Society Purchase, General Membership Fund

26.387

On View

  • European: Medieval and Renaissance, Level 2, West

Department

European Painting

The Virgin of the Rose Garden unites three devotional subjects, all popular after 1400 and related to the worship of the Virgin Mary: the Virgin Mary attended by virgin saints (among them Ursula, Catherine of Alexandria, Barbara, and Cecilia), the coronation of the Virgin, and the mystic marriage of Saint Catherine to the Christ child. The walled garden setting, with its realistic enumeration of flowers and plants familiar in Northern Europe at this time, refers both to the Near Eastern concept of a lush, floral Paradise and the Christian interpretation of the Old Testament's Song of Songs, which equates Mary's virginity with an enclosed garden. In the background the artist has depicted the city of Bruges prior to 1485, when another level was added to the city's belfry.

Sinai, convent of Poor Clares (Bruges, Belgium) [possibly commissioned for this religious establishment by Louis de Gruuthuse, see Roberts, 1998]

1785, auction by order of the Holy Roman Emperor, Joseph II, lot 4111

1785, bought for 2 florins by (John Berthels, England)

1919, Collection Weber (Brussels, Belgium)

1923, Collection Van der Hoop (Brussels, Belgium)

July 13, 1926, auction (F. Muller, Amsterdam, Netherlands)

1926, (Galerie D.A. Hoogendijk, Amsterdam, Netherlands)

1926-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

Friedländer, M. J. "A Drawing by Roger van der Weyden." Old Master Drawings 1 (December 1926): pp. 29-32, no. 75 (pl. 39). Valentiner, William. "The Madonna in the Rose Garden by the Master of the Lucia Legend." Bulletin of the DIA 8, 4 (1927): pp. 38-39 (cover ill.). Conway, M. Flemish and Belgian Art 1300-1900. London, 1927, p. 130, no. 75 (pl. 39). Friedländer, M.J. Die Altniederländische Malerei. Berlin, 1928, Vol. 6, pp. 68-69, no. 154 (pl. LXIV). Heil, W. Catalogue of Paintings in the Permanent Collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1930, no. 140. Tietze, H. Meisterwerke europäische Malerei in Amerika. Vienna, 1935, p. 135. Richardson, E.P. Detroit Institute of Arts Flemish Painting of the 15th and 16th Centuries. Detroit, 1936 (fig. 3). Tietze, Hans, ed. Masterpieces of European Paintings in America. New York, 1939, pp. 136 (ill.), 318, no. 136. Flemish Primitives. Exh. cat., Knoedler and Co. New York, 1942, p. 56f (ill.). Elst, Joseph van der. The Last Flowering of the Middle Ages. Garden City, 1945, p. 26, pl. 15 (ill.). Richardson, E.P., ed. Detroit Institute of Arts, Catalogue of Paintings. Detroit, 1944, p. 86, no. 140. van der Elst, J. Les Trois Madones et Autres Contes Flamands. Paris, 1950, p. 42 (ill.). Vergaegen, N. "Le Maitre de la légende de Sainte Lucie, Précisions sur son oeuvre." Bulletin de L'Institut Royal du Patrimoine Artistique 2 (1959): pp. 73-82 (ill.). Le Siècle des Primitifs Flamands. Bruges, 1960, pp. 136-138 (ill.). Flanders in the 15th Century. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1960, pp. 167-168, no. 41 (ill.). Winkler, F. "Ausstellung Altniederländischer Bilder aus Amerika in Brügge." Kunstchronik 13, 11 (November 1960): pp. 312-316. Wilenski, H. Flemish Painters 1430-1830. London, 1960, p. 396 (pl. 110) [listed as a work by the "Detroit Mystic Marriage Painter"] Winkler, F. Das Werk des Hugo van der Goes. Berlin, 1964, p. 159 (pl. 120). Cuttler, Charles D. Northern Painting from Pucelle to Bruegel. New York, 1968, p. 183 (fig. 227). Medical News Magazine of the American Medical Association 13, 1 (January 1969): pp. 241-246 (ill.). Horizon 11, 3 (Summer 1969): p. 77 (ill.). Friedländer, M. J. Early Netherlandish Painting. Leiden-Brussels, 1971, Vol. 6, part 1, pp. 42, 63-64, no. 154 (pl. 158). de Vos, D. "Nieuwe toeschrijvingen aan de Meester van de Lucialegende alias de Meester van de Rotterdamse Johannes op Patmos." Oud Holland 90 (1976): pp. 137-161 (fig. 4). "Bosch, etc..." World Art 50 (March 11, 1979): pp. 3-273 (ill.). [in Japanese, Shukan Asahi Hyakka-no Bijutsu, Tokyo] Cummings, Frederick J., ed. Selected Works from the Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1979, p. 90, no. 61 (ill.). Selected Renaissance Works of Art from the Permanent Collection. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1982, p. 7. Bernard, B. The Queen of Heaven. London, 1987, p. 232, no. 71 (ill.). Roberts, A.M. The Lucy Master and Hugo van der Goes. Antwerp, 1987, p. 20 (fig. 10). Martens, D. " A propos d'un triptyque du maître de la Legende de Sainte Godelieve à Abbeville: grands et petits maîtres dans la peinture flamande du XVe siècle." La Revue du Louvre et des Musées de France 42: pp. 34, 36, 38 (fig. 12). [composition compared with a triptych in the Musée Boucher de Perthes, Abbeville, attributed to the master of the Legend of St. Godelieve] Upton, J.M. Petrus Christus, His Place in 15th Century Flemish Painting. University Park, Pennsylvania, 1990, pp. 17-19 (fig. 13). [about Brüges] Kofuku, A. "Landscape with Virgin and Child or Rest on the Flight into Egypt. Patinir and Early Flemish Painting." Bruegel and Netherlandish Landscape Painting from the National Gallery Prague. Tokyo, 1990, pp. 37-47. Bauman, G.C. and W. Liedtke. Flemish Paintings in America. Antwerp, 1992, p. 350, no. 330 (ill.). Falkenburg, Reindert L. (translated by S. Herman). The Fruit of Devotion: Mysticism and the Imagery of Love in Flemish Paintings of the Virgin and Child, 1450-1550. Philadelphia, 1994 (fig. 7). Roberts, A.M. "The City and the Convent: The Virgin of the Rose Garden by the Master of the Legend of Saint Lucy." Bulletin of the DIA 72, 1-2 (1998): pp. 56-65 (ill.). From Van Eyck to Bruegel: Early Netherlandish Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1998, p. 116. [iconographic mention by M. Sprinson de Jesus in entry no. 11] and p. 134 [iconographic mention by V. Sintobin in entry no. 18] Weed, S.E. "My Sister, Bride and Mother: Aspects of Female Piety in Some Images of the Virgo Inter Virgines." Magistra 4, 1 (1998): pp. 3-26 (fig. 2). Wissman, F.W. European Vistas: Cultural Landscapes. Detroit, 2000, pp. 14, 17-19, 21, 110 (ill.). Martens, D. "Der Brügger Meister der Lucialegende. Bilanz der Forschungen und neue Hypothesen." Die Kunstbeziehungen Estlands mit den Niederlanden in den 15.-17. Tallinn, 2000, pp. 61, 67 (fig. 2). Martens, D. "Transmission et métamorphose d'un modèle: la descendance au XVIème siècle de la 'Virgo inter virgines' attribuée à Hugo van der Goes." Annales de la Société Royale d'Archéologie de Bruxelles 65 (2002): pp. 107-188 (fig. 2). Lorentz, P. "Jean Fouquet et les peintres des anciens Pays-Bas." Jean Fouquet, Peintre et enlumineur du XVe siècle. Exh. cat., Bibliothèque nationale de France. Paris, 2003, pp. 38-49 (mention in footnote 28). Ainsworth, Maryan W. "Intentional Alterations of Early Netherlandish Paintings." Metropolitan Museum Journal 40 (2005): 51–65, p. 65, note 15. Pumplin, Paula. "The Communion of Saints: The Master of the Virgo inter Virgines' Virgin and Child with Saints Catherine, Cecilia, Barbara and Ursula." The Rijksmuseum Bulletin 58, no. 4 (2010): 306-327, p. 318, fig. 12 (ill.) You, Yao-Fen. "Paul Coremans, Edgar Richardson and the 1960 Flemish Art show: A Transatlantic Friendship Forged by a Transatlantic Exhibition." In A Man of Vision, Scientia Artis 15. Brussels, 2019, pp. 172, note 2.

Master of the St. Lucy Legend, Virgin of the Rose Garden, between 1475 and 1480, oil on oak panel. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, General Membership Fund, 26.387.