Portrait of a Monk
early 1500s
Medium
oil on wood
Dimensions
unframed: 36 × 30.4 cm · framed: 54.5 × 48.5 × 5.5 cm
Classification
Painting
Department
Medieval Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Bequest of John L. Severance
Accession Number
1942.632
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
About this artwork
This panel originally formed the right half of a diptych, a hinged two-paneled painting used for private worship. The missing left panel probably depicted the Virgin and Child. The entire composition showed the monk, with his prayer book open, kneeling in an interior before Mary and the infant Jesus. This panel is very similar to another painting of a monk now in the National Gallery (London) by Gerard David. Although we do not know the monk's name, he must have lived in the Netherlandish city o...