Something's Off About This Painting

The first 1,000 people to click the link will get a full year of Premium membership to Craftsy for only $1.49: https://go.craftsy.com/artdeco/ Thank you Craftsy for sponsoring this video! This piece is called The Virgin and Child with Saints Louis and Margaret, a painting The National Gallery just acquired for £16.4 million — or about $22 million — with help from the American Friends of the National Gallery London. What’s strange is that nobody knows who painted it. We’re placed in what appears to be an open-air chapel. Our eyes are immediately drawn to the Virgin Mary seated in the center of the painting holding baby Jesus in her lap. Baby Jesus glances over at a man wearing a blue robe to the left of the painting. This is the King of France, Saint Louis. His features are so specific that art historians believe this is meant to be an actual portrait of him. He wears a collar of the French royal order of Saint Michael which was the French royal order. His robe is embroidered with gold fleur-de-lis, a historic symbol of the French monarchy. Flanking the Virgin and Child are two angels making music. The angel on the right holds a hymnal open to "Hail, Queen of Heaven, Hail, Lady of Angels" — a well-known Catholic hymn dedicated to Mary. The angel to the left of the painting is playing a mouth harp also known as a jaw harp. The biblical tidbits continue when we glance above the group to the figures carved into the pillars. Each one contains different stories from the old testament. To the right of the painting is Saint Margaret kneeling on a monster photobombing from the ground who is supposed to be Satan. According to legend, Saint Margaret was imprisoned for refusing to renounce her faith when Satan showed up in dragon form and swallowed her whole. But she was holding a cross, which irritated the dragon's insides so much that he burst open — and we can even see the cracking in the shell where she's kneeling on it. There are clues within the painting that have let the gallery to estimate that it was created around 1510 and that it is either French or Netherlandish. When this painting first appeared in the historical record in 1803, it was attributed to Jan Gossaert. But over time, scholars started having their doubts. It also been said that the painting could have been painted by Jean Hey, but still nobody knows for sure. Thank you for watching! References and Further Reading: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/pa... https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/ab... https://www.theepochtimes.com/bright/... https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-... https://news.artnet.com/art-world/nat... Music/sound attribution: Suspense by woodmoose -- https://freesound.org/s/165294/ -- License: Attribution 4.0 Bicycle Wheel: soft whirring of spinning spokes, rhythmic clicks from the gear, gentle rubber friction and occasional metallic squeaks from the frame. by ABloemarts242029 -- https://freesound.org/s/765133/ -- License: Attribution 4.0 Frost Waltz by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Divertissement by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Arcadia - Wonders by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Impending Boom by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... African Drums (Sting) by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org/