Jan van Scorel (follower of) - Two Donors With their Children - Walters 37247

These two panels were wings of an altarpiece; the lost central panel depicted a sacred scene, toward which the donors turned. The paintings were never completed, leaving the under-drawing visible. The style is that of Jan van Scorel, the leading painter in the northern Netherlands during the 1530s. A trip in 1519-24 to Venice, the Holy Land, and Rome influenced Van Scorel's development of sculpted faces and misty, fantasy landscapes. The palm tree and penetrating light mark this dream-like terrain as Mediterranean.