JAN GOSSAERT (follower of) (Maubeuge, 1478 - Antwerp, 1532) Madonna and Child with Musician Angels Oil on panel, 93X67.5 cm Provenance: Genoa, private collection With its unmistakable Flemish character, the panel can be traced back to a follower of Jan Gossaert and participant of the so-called Antwerp School. This is evident in the Italianising behaviour of the figures, mindful of central Italian examples but interpreted through local education and substrate. The result is an archaic yet modern elegance, in which the drawing sprezzatura of the great masters becomes a refined intellectual exercise, yet useful to us in understanding the spread of Renaissance and Mannerist culture in northern Europe. Also typical is the scenic setting in which the Virgin and Child are seated, evoking 15th-century Gothic architecture and allowing glimpses of the buildings painted in the background in the manner of the famous miniatures of the Très riches heures of the Duc de Berry.