The Virgin at the Fountain

Jan van Eyck

1439

Panel

7 1/2 x 4 3/4 inches

Musée Royal des Beaux-Arts, Antwerp.

van Eyck here employs the cloth-of-honor composition found in medieval manuscripts, which simultaneously highlights the central figures and also creates a form of forced perspective — a device used by the early Pre-Raphaelites. — George P. Landow