03 — ARTWORK
Virgin and Child beneath a Vine
HEMESSEN, Jan Sanders van · 1529 →
- MEDIUM
- Oil on oak panel, 87 x 68 cm
- TYPE
- Religious
PALETTE
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CURRENT LOCATION · Private Collection
- FILE
- 637 × 814 px · JPEG
COMMENTARY
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This is a rare early work by Jan Sanders van Hemessen. Painted in the late 1520s on his return from a lengthy trip to Italy, the panelTerm in painting for a support of wood, metal, or other rigid substance, as distinct from canvas. Until the adoption of canvas in the 15th century nearly all the movable paintings of Europe were executed on wood, and even up to the beginning of the 17th century it is probable that as much painting was done on the one support as on the other. Painters who worked on a small scale often used copper panels (Elsheimer is a leading example), and in the colonial art of South America copper and tin and even lead and zinc were used. On a larger scale, slate has occasionally been used as a support, notably by Rubens for his altarpiece for Sta Maria in Vallicella (the Chiesa Nuova) in Rome; the picture he originally painted was said to reflect the light unpleasantly and slate was used for the replacement to produce a more matt finish. For wood panels the Italian masters of the Renaissance preferred white poplar, while oak was the most common wood used in northern Europe. Many other types were used, however; analysis of the contents of art galleries has yielded a long list, including beech, cedar, chestnut, fir, larch, linden, mahogany, olive, and walnut. In the 20th century cedar, teak, and dark walnut are favourites, and modern painters have also used plywood, fibre-board, and other synthetic materials as supports. already demonstrates signs of the classicising elegance that he learned from his studies of Raphael and the young Bronzino, as well as the sense of form and monumentality that he would have seen and studied in the work of Michelangelo.
Hemessen's interest in and tendency to include a variety of flora and fauna in a highly naturalistic setting is perhaps one of his most distinguishable characteristics and features prominently in all his works of an external setting.
OTHER WORKS BY JAN SANDERS VAN HEMESSEN
CITE THIS RECORD — BIBTEX
@online{wga-ra10db21bae9cbf,
author = {Krén, Emil and Marx, Daniel},
title = {Virgin and Child beneath a Vine by HEMESSEN, Jan Sanders van},
organization = {{Web Gallery of Art}},
date = {2026-09-13},
url = {https://beta.wga.hu/artists/hemessen-jan-sanders-van-rd8da7701b01ab7/virgin-and-child-beneath-a-vine-ra10db21bae9cbf},
urldate = {2026-09-13},
langid = {english}
}ACCESSED 2026-09-13. REPLACE THE AUTHOR FIELD WITH THE COMMENTARY AUTHOR WHERE ONE IS NAMED.