The Monstrous and the Mystical

Fascinating online lecture from the National Gallery focusing on a new acquisition and putting it into context.

Melissa Baksh, a freelance art historian, described the new 15th century acquisition “The Virgin and Child with Saints Louis and Margaret” which I am slightly obsessed by. She shared than dendrochronology has dated the panel to 1480 and it is Baltic oak which was frequently used in the Low Countries. It was first documented at a monastery in Ghent. The artists hasn’t been identified but she led us though some clues to its origin.

She looked at the image in some detail explaining details in the St Margaret figure which come from the Golden Legend, how the order of St Michael wears is dated from before 1516 and how the architectural capitals are Old Testament scenes.

She looked in particular at the dragon or monster which takes centre stage under the feet of St Margaret who has vanquished it. She put it into the context of Northern European art at the time from early bestiaries which show animals from the real and imagined world, though the dragon of the St Margaret on the Portinari altarpiece, to Van Eyck’s Last Judgement and Bosch’s “The Garden of Earthly Delights”.