'', around 1435,
Musée du Louvre. Like van der Paele's panel, this work was created as an eventual memorial for the donor's burial church, in this case for
Nicolas Rolin's family chapel in Notre Dame-du-Chastel in
Autun.|alt=The painting shows the Virgin Mary (on the right) crowned by a hovering Angel while she presents the Infant Jesus to the donor, Chancellor Rolin (to the left). It is set within a spacious Italian-style loggia with a rich decoration of columns and bas-reliefs. In the background is a landscape with a city on a river. The painting is set in a rounded church with
ambulatories. Mary occupies the area where the altarpiece would usually be positioned. The panel has a sculptural look; the throne, windows, arches and hanging canvases borrow from the conventions of
Romanesque architecture. which contains several Latin inscriptions, including van Eyck's signature, the date of completion, the donor's name, and texts related to St. George and St. Donatian.
Figures As with van Eyck's
Madonna of Chancellor Rolin, the panel creates an intimate setting between the donor and Virgin. This is emphasised by the donor's physical proximity to the Virgin which, according to art historian
Jeffrey Chipps Smith, "mentally and pictorially [breaches] the barriers between heaven and earth" and implies the "patrons are visually immortalized as meriting the Virgin and Child's personal attention." The intimacy is further enhanced by small details such as the overlap between the donor and Saint George, who casts a shadow on van der Paele and seems to have accidentally stepped on his
surplice as he leans forward to introduce the canon to the Virgin. Donatian stands in front of a set of windows that are just outside the pictorial space. He holds a jewelled
processional cross in his left hand, and a wheel containing five lit tapered candles in his right.
Virgin and Child , rests on her lap.|alt=The Madonna holds the Child in her right arm and a flower in her left. Her red gown is heavily folded, and she is surrounded by the oriental patterns of the overhanging tapestry. The panel is one of the earliest known
northern European sacra conversazione (the Virgin and Child shown with a group of saints in a relatively informal grouping) paintings. The Virgin sits on an elevated throne, situated beneath a minutely detailed and extravagantly decorated brocade
baldachin containing white rose patterns, symbolising her purity. Given the church setting, Mary occupies the area where the altarpiece would usually be. The steps leading to the throne are covered with an
oriental carpet. Although the Madonna's throne is in the mid-ground, her head is level with the standing figures in the foreground, who are closer in
perspective. The
apse in which she sits adds to the illusion of depth and is an expanded area for her throne. The Child has curly blond hair and sits on a white cloth, animated and upright, at the side of the Virgin's lap. Like Mary, his body is shown frontally, his head in three quarters view. He reaches for what seems to be a parrot perched on her lap. He is intended to represent both the
host and
Eucharist, common allusions in
Early Netherlandish art and reflecting that the panel was intended for the celebration of
Mass. The saint was the donor's name saint and St. Donatian's Cathedral was built () to house a
relic of one of his arm bones. George's armour is similar to that of St. Michael in van Eyck's
Dresden Triptych, while his steel shield resembles those in the
Knights of Christ panel of the Ghent altarpiece. George is the only figure whose feet are exposed. The uncertain manner in which he gestures to the Virgin gives the impression of a shy and uncertain nature; and he raises his helmet in a hesitant manner. Friedländer observes that George's head is slightly inclined, his face "twisted into an empty smile". The Virgin and Child can be seen in the reflection of George's helmet. Van Eyck alludes to his own artistry by including his self portrait as a reflection on the knight's shield. The artist depicts himself standing at his easel, in a manner that strongly resembles the self-portrait reflected in the mirror in his
Arnolfini Portrait.
Joris van der Paele The painting marks a departure from conventional and contemporary European epitaphs by placing the saints and mortal donor within the same pictorial space. Van der Paele kneels to the right of the Virgin and Child and seems a somewhat distracted and absent-minded figure. This is intentional, an indication that he is, in the words of art historian Bret Rothstein, "disconnected from the perceptible world", and fully absorbed in the spiritual realm. This notion is reinforced by his glasses which, although they imply education, wealth and learning, also allude to fallibility of the human, earthly senses. In keeping with the conventions of late medieval art, van der Paele does not look directly at any of the heavenly figures, but stares into the middle distance, observing social and spiritual decorum. Van Eyck does not shy from showing the physical effects of the canon's illness, including worn, crevassed and tired skin, weak vision, enlarged temporal arteries and swollen fingers. The awkwardness with which van der Paele clutches his breviary suggests weakness in his left arm; van de Paele probably suffered acute arm and shoulder pain, borne out by early 1430s church records documenting that he was excused from morning duties, and absent all day by 1434. His condition has been diagnosed by modern doctors as possibly
polymyalgia rheumatica and
temporal arteritis. A restoration of the painting in 1934 by
Jef Van der Verken painted over a lesion on the lower lip of van der Paele which was visible in older black-and-white photographs taken by
Fierens Gevaert. The art critic and dermatologist
Jules Desneux diagnosed it as a potentially malignant
plaque keratosique. ==Iconography==