After Robert Campin, The Virgin and Child in an Apse with Two Angels

We look through a gilded arch into a small curved space, perhaps an apsidal chapel, in which the Virgin Mary is breastfeeding the Christ Child to an angelic musical accompaniment. She cradles him in her arms, and looks down affectionately as he hungrily squeezes her breast.

Mary wears a blue underdress open at the neck to reveal her linen shift and with tight sleeves flecked with gold. Over this is a pale purplish blue robe, with gold edging on the deep sleeves, and a blue cloak of the same colour; they fall in deep sculptural folds at her feet. Her long loose hair is a sign both of her virginity and her royalty. Tiny golden rays form an aureole – a circle of radiating lines – around her head. To her right, an angel plucks at a lute with a plectrum. To her left another plays the harp.

This is one of around 60 versions so far discovered of a very famous image, Virgin in an Apse, painted by Robert Campin, possibly in 1420. The original is lost, and most of the versions appear to have been painted at the end of the fifteenth or in the sixteenth century. All the surviving compositions are slightly different, so it is hard to work out what the original looked like, but this seems to be quite a faithful copy: it is similar to other early versions, such as one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

The panel was presumably meant to be shown on a wall, as there are no traces of ground or paint on the back. The frame is original and its structure similar to that of a group of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century frames which we know were made in Brussels. Its black and gold paint, although not original, might mimic the original colour scheme. Hinges have been fixed into each side of it. These are old but not necessarily original: they are badly placed and wings attached to them would have strained the joints of the frame.

Much remains to be discovered about the Virgin in an Apse. The ‘apse’ itself and the upraised little finger of the Virgin’s left hand remain mysterious, but the most baffling question is why this composition should have enjoyed such immense popularity. The original, or one of the versions, may perhaps have been associated with a miracle. If the miracle took place towards the end of the fifteenth century, that would explain why so many versions were produced in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.