Jan Van Eyck, The Madonna In The Church

Jan Van Eyck, The Madonna In The Church

Madonna in the Church (or The Virgin in the Church) is a small oil painting by early Dutch painter Jan van Eyck. Likely painted between 1438–40, it depicts the Virgin Mary holding the Child Jesus in a Gothic cathedral. Mary is presented as the Queen of Heaven, holding a child Jesus who gazes at her while wearing a jeweled crown and clutching the hem of her red dress in a manner reminiscent of the 13th-century Byzantine tradition of the Eleusa icon (Virgin of Tenderness). The carvings on the arch behind the nave contain wooden carvings showing episodes from Mary's life, while a faux bois statue in a niche depicts her holding the child in a similar pose. The resultant painting seems to intend the main figures on the panel to appear like animated statues. At a door on the right, two angels read psalms from a divine book. As in other Byzantine depictions of Madonna, van Eyck portrays a monumental Mary who is unrealistically large compared to her surroundings. The panel includes closely observed beams of light filtering through the cathedral's windows. It illuminates the interior with two pools on the floor before reaching its apex. The light has a symbolic significance, alluding simultaneously to Mary's virgin purity and the spiritual presence of God.

Most art historians see the panel as the left wing of a disassembled diptych; the probable counterpart wing was a votive portrait. Near-contemporary copies by Master of 1499 and Jan Gossaert pair it with two very different right-hand images: one belonging to a kneeling donor inside; the other set in the open air, where the donor is presented by St Anthony. Both painters have made significant changes in van Eyck's composition, possibly modernizing the image with contemporary styles.

Madonna in the Church was first documented in 1851. Since then, its dating and attribution have been widely debated among scholars. The panel was bought in 1874 for the Berlin Gemäldegalerie. It was stolen in 1877 and returned shortly thereafter, but without its original written frame, which was never recovered. Today, Madonna in the Church is considered one of van Eyck's finest; Millard Meiss has written, "the splendor and delicacy of its portrayal of light are unparalleled in Western art."