MASTER OF THE ST. LUCY LEGEND

The Virgin of the Rose Garden unites three devotional subjects, all popular after 1400 and related to the worship of the Virgin Mary: the Virgin Mary attended by virgin saints (among them Ursula, Catherine of Alexandria, Barbara, and Cecilia), the coronation of the Virgin, and the mystic marriage of Saint Catherine to the Christ child. The walled garden setting, with its realistic enumeration of flowers and plants familiar in Northern Europe at this time, refers both to the Near Eastern concept of a lush, floral Paradise and the Christian interpretation of the Old Testament's Song of Songs, which equates Mary's virginity with an enclosed garden. In the background the artist has depicted the city of Bruges prior to 1485, when another level was added to the city's belfry.