_Unknown_ (Flemish School: 15th century).
_See also_ (p. xx)
On the Madonna's right is St. Peter; on her left St. Paul, an
arrangement common in early art, St. Peter and St. Paul being the two
chief apostles on whom the Church of Christ is built. St. Paul offers
a pink to the infant Christ. Flowers were consecrated to the Virgin,
and the early painters chose those they liked best to be emblems of
love and beauty. Notice the design on the stuff fixed at the back of
the Madonna's throne; it is a beautiful example of the ornamental work
of the time in northern Europe. The picture was formerly ascribed to
Van der Goes--an artist whose only certainly known picture is the
altar-piece in the hospital of S. Maria Nuova in Florence,--and is by
some ascribed to Bouts (see under 783).