Virgin and Child Enthroned with two Musical Angels

When this panel went to auction in Bonn in December 1888, from the collection of Princess Salm-Salm, it was catalogued as a Holy Family by Rogier van der Weyden, the great Brussels painter of the generation before Memling. Only in 1925 did the Swiss art historian Paul Ganz publish it as an early work by Memling, and the Nelson-Atkins now dates it to around 1465 to 1470, his first years in Bruges.

The museum points to a contrast inside the picture. The sky is flat gold, the old sign of heaven, while the town houses, the walled garden and the road winding out to distant towers are painted as a real place. Two angels in blue hold a crown over the Virgin, and two more make the music, one at a small organ, the other with a lute. Kansas City bought the panel in 1944 and showed it that December as its masterpiece of the month.