Long believed to have been lost, the recent rediscovery of the sixteenth-century painting Madonna of the Cherries (ca. 1529) by Quentin Metsys offered the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles an opportunity to acquire one of the most significant paintings of the Flemish Renaissance to appear on the market in decades. The painting will go on view in the Getty Center’s North Pavilion. This is the second painting by Metsys to enter the Getty collections, following the 2018 acquisition of Christ as the Man of Sorrows (ca. 1520-1530).
Madonna of the Cherries
The painting depicts the Virgin and Child in loving embrace while seated on a regal throne. Christ, portrayed as a robust nude infant, wraps both arms around his mother’s neck and kisses her. The Virgin firmly presses him to her breast and delicately flourishes a stem of cherries between the pinched fingers of her right hand. Through the large arched window at left, a Romanesque palace beside a lake is visible.
Rich with symbolism, the cherries have celestial connotations as the fruit of heaven, while their color signifies the future blood of Christ’s passion and sacrifice on the cross. The still life in the foreground elaborates on the theme of Christ’s future sacrifice, with a yellow apple referring to Christ’s role as the new Adam.
Quentin Metsys (1466-1530), Madonna of the Cherries, ca. 1529, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, photo: Christie’s
History of the Painting
The first recorded owner of Madonna of the Cherries was prominent early seventeenth-century art collector Cornelis van der Geest who, according to contemporary accounts, resisted efforts by the Archdukes to obtain the painting from him. All traces of the painting were lost following its sale to an anonymous buyer in 1668.
It resurfaced at auction in Paris in 1920 but was no longer recognizable due to several additions, such as a thick layer of discolored varnish and overpainting, including a green curtain painted over the background landscape. It reappeared once again in 2015 at a Christie’s auction, still marred by the later additions, and labeled as a studio version. After a subsequent conservation treatment, which revealed its exceptional quality and condition, scholars recognized it as the prime version of Metsys’ masterpiece.