This painting was commissioned from Jan van Eyck at the end of his life, in April 1441. He would die just two months later, so in all probability the painting was designed and sketched by him but completed by the workshop after his death.
The man kneeling in front of the Virgin to receive the Child’s blessing is Jan Vos. A Knight of the Teutonic Order, an order then primarily devoted to running hospitals and charitable institutions, Vos later joined the Carthusian Order. In 1441, he became the prior of the Charterhouse of Bruges, on the occasion of which he commissioned this portrait.
The Virgin and Child are depicted in a loggia, under a canopy inscribed with the words “Hail, Mary, full of grace.” Vos is on the left, in front of Saint Barbara who is placed in front of the tower in which she had been imprisoned (where you can also see a statue of Mars). On the right is St. Elizabeth of Hungary, holding the crown she gave up to become a nun.
Elizabeth may have been included in the painting because she was the patron saint of the Duchess of Burgundy, who made donations to the Carthusian monasteries such as the one presided over by Jan Vos. Barbara was the patron saint of soldiers—and of the Teutonic Order, of which Jan Vos had been a member. Netherlandish artists were known for their meticulous attention to detail. For example, if you look very closely—to the right of Jan Vos’s mouth, next to the base of the column—you can make out a man hiding in the bushes.
The Virgin and Child with St. Barbara, St. Elizabeth, and Jan Vos
This painting was probably commissioned from Jan van Eyck by the Carthusian monk Jan Vos following the latter’s appointment as prior of the Charterhouse of Bruges (Genadedal) in April 1441. Technical examination suggests that Van Eyck laid out the essential design for the figures and the execution was left to a skilled assistant—possibly because of the master’s death in June of that year. Astonishing in its myriad details, the panel depicts Jan Vos seeking the intercession of the Virgin and Child, under the protection of two female saints.
The panel was probably intended as Vos’s memorial, to be displayed in the church after his death to commemorate him and attract prayers for the repose of his soul. In 1443, Vos secured an indulgence for the painting, ensuring that anyone who said the Ave Maria in front of it—the first line is inscribed on the Cloth of Honor behind the Virgin—would receive forty days off their time in purgatory. The indulgence, meant to call attention to the memorial and increase prayers for Vos’s salvation, was only valid as long as the panel remained in the Carthusian order. Today, on the walls of The Frick Collection, the Virgin has therefore long lost its power of spiritual remission.
Baron James de Rothschild, Paris (about 1850). Rothschild family. Knoedler. Frick, 1954.
Source: Paintings in The Frick Collection: American, British, Dutch, Flemish and German. Volume I. New York: The Frick Collection, 1968.
