Virgo inter Virgines (M 070) Banner

The artwork known as the Virgo inter Virgines was painted by an anonymous artist dubbed by scholars The Master of the Legend of St. Lucy (fl. ca. 1485). According to archival sources, the painting was installed in the Church of Our Lady (Dutch: Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk) in Bruges, Belgium, in 1489 on the altar of the Rhetoric Chamber of the Three Saints (De drie Sanctinnen): SS. Barbara, Catherine of Alexandria, and Mary Magdalene. Rhetoric chambers were civic societies for the promotion of the literary arts and were very popular during the Renaissance in the Low Countries. + At the center of the painting, the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVM) and infant Jesus are enthroned. Behind them, two angels support an ornate tapestry of honor. Two groups of virgin saints, most of them 3rd-4th century Late Antique Roman martyrs, flank the throne. On the left, reading clockwise from the painting’s lower left-hand corner, are SS. Ursula, Apollonia, Lucy, Cecilia(?), Catherine of Alexandria, and Mary Magdalene. On the right, reading clockwise from the BVM’s elbow, are SS. Barbara, Margaret of Antioch, Agatha, Christina of Bolsena, and Agnes. [Additional information about individual saints is to be found in the descriptions accompanying their greeting cards or postcards.] + Image Credit (M 070): Virgo inter Virgines [in Latin; La Vierge parmi les vierges in French; The Virgin among Virgins in English], by The Master of the Legend of St. Lucy (fl. c. 1435-1506/1509), oil on oak panel, 67.3"x42.5" (171 cm x 108 cm), c. 1488, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels, inv. 2576. From Wikimedia Commons {PD-Art|PD-Old-100}. The image file has been identified as being free of known restrictions under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights.