Virgin with the Christ Child Welcoming the Cross, c.1600 (oil on panel)

One of the most influential and popular artists in Antwerp during the late 1500s, de Vos was instrumental in bringing the free brushwork and brilliant colors of Venetian Renaissance painters to Northern Europe. From the late 1570s on, de Vos and his colleagues received numerous commissions from churches and religious groups who had lost many of their religious paintings during the Protestant Reformation earlier in the century. These new works reflected the expectation that images should clearly address religious doctrine in a way that viewers would relate to viscerally. Here de Vos depicts a rare subject in Christian art. The infant reaches for the cross, a symbol of his coming crucifixion. By sacrificing himself, Christ would bring about the possibility of human redemption. The event, however, is presented in a contemporary interior, helping to bring the subject to life for viewers in this period.