# St Luke Drawing the Virgin [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [GOSSART, Jan]() - Date: 1501-1550 - Technique: Oil on oak panel, 110 x 82 cm ## Commentary The scene was a favourite subject of the late Gothic German and Netherlandish masters. This painting, one of the greatest by Gossart, is a departure from traditional Netherlandish representation of the subject. It was inspired by Italian art and reformulated in Gossart's manner. The setting is a Renaissance hall decorated with grotesque pilasters bearing classical medallions copied from Roman coinage. In the background there is a tempietto adorned with the statue of Moses. St Luke, kneeling at a prie-dieu, makes a metalpoint drawing of the Virgin, appearing in a vision before him. He is guided by the hand of an angel. A number of Italian sources have been suggested in the literature as possible prototypes, including Raphael's <a onclick="return OpenOther\('/html/r/raphael/2firenze/2/40tempi.html'\)" href="/html/r/raphael/2firenze/2/40tempi.html">Tempi Madonna,</a> Fra Bartolomeo's <a onclick="return OpenOther\('/html/b/bartolom/fra/bernard.html'\)" href="/html/b/bartolom/fra/bernard.html">Vision of St Bernard,</a> and Filippino Lippi's <a onclick="return OpenOther\('/html/l/lippi/flippino/carafa/2assump0.html'\)" href="/html/l/lippi/flippino/carafa/2assump0.html">Annunciation.</a> Gossart painted two versions of the subject, this is the later one, the first is in Prague. A remarkable innovation of the second version is that the Madonna is not a sitter of the portrait painting, she appears as a vision of St Luke. ## Related artworks - [A Grotesque with Two Sirens]() - [A Man Holding a Glove]() - [A Reliquary]() - [A Women's Bath]() - [Adam Accuses Eve before God]() - [Adam and Eve \(detail\)]() - [Adam and Eve]() - [Adam and Eve]() - [Adam and Eve]() - [Adam and Eve]() - [Adam and Eve]() - [Agony in the Garden \(detail\)]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()