Portrait of Livina van Steelant

This portrait of a Ghent patrician family possibly formed the exterior panels of a triptych, from which the middle panel has gone lost. We know who is portrayed here by the coats of arms and mottos in the opened breviaries. A man and woman are presented with their children. The children, with a small cross in their folded hands, were already deceased when the painting was executed. Behind them stands a guardian angel. The Ghent miniaturist Gerard Horenbout, to whom this painting is attributed, worked at the court of Margaretha of Austria. The highly refined naturalism and the elevated technical quality are reminiscent of the work of Gerard David.