Flemish school; first third of the 16th century.

Flemish school; first third of the XVI century.
"Virgin and Child.
Oil on oak wood.
It has slight restorations.
It has Spanish frame of the seventeenth century.
Measurements: 41 x 30 cm; 56 x 44 cm (frame).
The scene, executed with extreme delicacy on oak board, represents the Virgin Mary in the intimate act of breastfeeding the Baby Jesus, who, while feeding, holds with his little hand a pomegranate. This composition, of marked tenderness and theological symbolism, is characteristically Flemish both for its technical treatment and its symbolic depth.
The work is part of the iconographic repertoire of the Virgo Lactans, a typology that, although of Byzantine origin, was reworked with particular force in northern Europe throughout the fifteenth century and maintained its validity in the first third of the sixteenth century. In this Flemish version, the natural gesture of breastfeeding, humanly tender and visually intimate, is charged with doctrinal connotations: Mary's milk symbolizes divine grace, and the act of nourishing the Child anticipates, in a veiled way, the sacramental economy of the Eucharist.
The pomegranate that the Child holds adds a layer of significance to the scene. Traditionally associated with martyrdom because of the color of its juice and the multiplicity of its seeds, the fruit here becomes an emblem of the future passion of Christ, as well as of the Church, unified in its diversity. The fact that the Child holds it naturally while feeding reinforces the theological idea of the incarnation as a redemptive mystery already present from infancy.
The background of the scene, although secondary in terms of narrative, is treated with the optical meticulousness characteristic of the Flemish school: subtle draperies and a landscape seen through a window contribute to frame the scene with a sacred and domestic atmosphere at the same time. The oak panel, the usual support for Flemish workshops, allows for a meticulous execution, visible in the precision of the embroidery, the soft flesh tones and the almost sculptural treatment of the Virgin's face, which conveys a recollected spirituality.
During the first third of the 16th century, the Flemish school, already fully mature after the optical revolution of Jan van Eyck and the devotional contributions of Rogier van der Weyden, lived a period of synthesis: integrating elements of the Italian Renaissance (such as the classicism of the figures or the architectural perspective) with its Nordic heritage of detail, symbolism and restrained emotionality. In this context, themes such as the nursing Virgin with a pomegranate were not only devotionally significant, but also opportunities to explore the divine corporeality and the mother-child relationship from a human and theological prism.