Netherlandish devotional painting estimated at $150,000- 250,000 in Freeman’s auction.
A New York institution has consigned an intriguing Netherlandish devotional painting to Freeman’s sale in Philadelphia on February 27. The small oil on cradled oak panel is one of only a dozen pictures by a workshop known only by the moniker Master of the Embroidered Foliage.
That name was coined in 1926 by German art historian Max Jakob Friedländer (1867-1958), who likened the way the artist (or perhaps a group of artists active in late 15th century Brussels) painted the foliage in his works to the repeated pattern of stitches in embroidery. All known paintings depict the Virgin and Child in similar poses and – although minor alterations were made to the landscape background – follow earlier works by the Brussels artist Rogier van der Weyden (1399-1464).