Panels from the High Altar of the Charterhouse of Saint-Honoré, Thuison-les-Abbeville: Virgin and Child
c. 1495
Medium
Oil on panel
Dimensions
Panel: 117.3 × 50.8 cm (46 3/16 × 20 in.); Framed: 137.2 × 69.8 cm (54 × 27 1/2 in.)
Classification
oil on panel
Department
Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
16307
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
The Virgin and Child and Saint John the Baptist panels once served as exterior wings for an altarpiece at the Carthusian monastery in Thuison-les-Abbeville, France, formerly part of the Burgundian Netherlands. The figures of the Virgin Mary and Saint John the Baptist appear within shallow stone niches painted to look like the Gothic architecture of a church, with pointed arches and tracery. These enshrined images of Mary and John celebrated the monastery as the site of some of their relics (huma...
About the Artist
French
Georges Hugnet (1906–1974) was a multifaceted French artist, poet, writer, and critic whose innovative collages and graphic works bridged Dada and Surrealism. Born in Paris on July 11, 1906, he spent much of his early childhood in Buenos Aires, Argentina, returning to France around 1913. His early life and artistic training remain sparsely documented, with no records of formal art school attendanc...