Virgin and Child with St Anthony the Abbot and a Donor

This is one of the earliest works Hans Memling actually dated, painted in 1472, not long after he had settled in Bruges. Bruges was then one of the great trading cities of northern Europe, and its wealthy merchants wanted small, private pictures they could pray before at home. This is one of them. The Virgin sits with the Child at the centre, and to the side kneels the man who paid for it, shown at prayer as though he were really in the room with them. Beside him stands Saint Anthony the Abbot, a hermit saint you can recognise by the pig at his feet, the animal his followers were allowed to let roam medieval towns. Memling was still early in his career here, learning from the older Bruges masters, above all Jan van Eyck, whose work he could study in the same city.