St. Luke painting the Virgin

In 1532 Maarten van Heemskerck was about to leave Haarlem for Rome, to spend years drawing the ancient ruins and sculpture that every ambitious northern painter longed to see. Before he went he made this large panel and gave it to his own guild, the Haarlem company of Saint Luke, the painters' guild, named for the evangelist who by tradition painted the Virgin from life and so became the patron of all painters. So Heemskerck's subject is really his own trade: Luke at work on the Virgin and Child, a figure leaning in over his shoulder to guide the brush. A recent restoration split the work back into the two separate panels it was first made as, and stripped away later overpaint that had darkened the background.