The Virgin Seated on an Altar (1520/40): Artwork and History

The Virgin Seated on an Altar (1520/40) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Jean de Gourmont French, 1506-1551.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

Here the Virgin and Child—sitting atop a classical altar turned into a Christian throne—preside over an audience of awed shepherds. A luxuriously patterned cloth of honor with tassels softens the rigid architecture, spilling forward down the steps to the rapt audience.

Object facts

• Title: The Virgin Seated on an Altar
• Date: 1520/40
• Artist attribution: Jean de Gourmont French, 1506-1551
• Place of origin: France
• Medium: Engraving in black on ivory laid paper
• Dimensions: Sheet, trimmed within platemark: 8.1 × 7.9 cm (3 1/4 × 3 1/8 in.)
• Type: Print
• Department: Prints and Drawings
• Reference number: 1956.1059

Collection credit

Bequest of Mrs. Potter Palmer, Jr.

View the original

Explore the artwork in the Art Institute's collection, including its image and the museum's current catalogue details.

The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.