Madonna and Child

At barely 25 centimetres tall, the panel was made to be looked at from close up, and small Madonnas like it were kept at home for private prayer. Around 1520 Jan Gossaert turned the old subject into a game. The sturdy, naked Christ Child has caught hold of his mother's white veil to pull it aside, and the Mauritshuis describes the two of them as playing peek-a-boo. Mary looks down at him, one hand resting on her chest, the other steadying him as he stands on a table spread with a patterned cloth. Her cloak and dress are painted in ultramarine, a blue ground from semi-precious stone and among the costliest colours a painter could buy. The museum acquired the panel in 1939 from the Amsterdam art dealer Jacques Goudstikker.