Virgin and Child (c. 1662): Art, History and Details

Virgin and Child (c. 1662) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Anna Maria Carew (British); Anthony van Dyck (Flemish, 1599–1641).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Larger in size than most portrait miniatures, the Madonna and Child by Anna Maria Carew is a cabinet miniature, or a small work on vellum, enamel, or ivory that copies a full-scale oil painting. In this case the original painting was by Flemish artist Anthony van Dyck, and engraved by Paulus Pontius around 1630 shortly after it was painted. As a cabinet miniature, this work is somewhat unusual because of its religious subject and its simplicity. Cabinet miniatures tended instead to reproduce paintings of dramatic subjects and climactic moments in myths or religious stories. They could be hung on the wall or stored in elaborate and specially designed furniture, and they were often displayed in the smaller, more private rooms of a house.

Object facts

• Title: Virgin and Child
• Date: c. 1662
• Creator attribution: Anna Maria Carew (British); Anthony van Dyck (Flemish, 1599–1641)
• Culture: England, 17th century
• Type: Portrait Miniature
• Technique: watercolor heightened with gum on vellum, with gold
• Dimensions: Diameter: 12.1 cm (4 3/4 in.)
• Collection: P - British before 1800
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 2008.148

A detail from the museum

King Charles II awarded Carew an annual pension to copy in miniature from the royal collection.

Collection credit

Gift of the Painting and Drawing Society of The Cleveland Museum of Art

Further reading listed by the museum

• Sotheby's (Firm). Early British Drawings, Watercolours and Portrait Miniatures. London: Sotheby's, 2008.
• Korkow, Cory, and Dario Robleto. Disembodied: Portrait Miniatures and Their Contemporary Relatives. 2013.
• Korkow, Cory, and Jon L. Seydl. British Portrait Miniatures: The Cleveland Museum of Art. 2013.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.