Virgo inter Virgines COLLECTION (M 070)

This is one of our very favorite paintings! The artwork known as the Virgo inter Virgines was painted by an anonymous artist dubbed by scholars The Master of the Legend of St. Lucy (fl. ca. 1485). According to archival sources, the painting was installed in the Church of Our Lady (Dutch: Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk) in Bruges, Belgium, in 1489 on the altar of the Rhetoric Chamber of the Three Saints (De drie Sanctinnen): SS. Barbara, Catherine of Alexandria, and Mary Magdalene. Rhetoric chambers were civic societies for the promotion of the literary arts and were very popular during the Renaissance in the Low Countries. + At the center of the painting, the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVM) and infant Jesus are enthroned. Behind them, two angels support an ornate tapestry of honor. Two groups of virgin saints, most of them 3rd-4th century Late Antique Roman martyrs, flank the throne. On the left, reading clockwise from the painting’s lower left-hand corner, are SS. Ursula, Apollonia, Lucy, Cecilia(?), Catherine of Alexandria, and Mary Magdalene. On the right, reading clockwise from the BVM’s elbow, are SS. Barbara, Margaret of Antioch, Agatha, Christina of Bolsena, and Agnes. [Additional information about individual saints is to be found in the descriptions accompanying their greeting cards or postcards.]