The image of the Virgin and Child surrounded by the brilliance of the sun's rays was linked to a specific devotion popular in the late 15th and early 16th centuries in the Low Countries. It was associated with the Ave Sanctissima prayer and the doctrine supported by Pope Sixtus IV of the Immaculate Conception, which claimed that the Virgin was conceived without original sin. The Christ Child holds an apple in reference to the sin committed by Adam and Eve, who ate the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. In his role as the "new Adam" and redeemer of humankind, Christ raises his hand in blessing toward a donor portrait (now lost). Both monumental in form - the figures virtually burst out of their tightly cropped space - and exquisitely refined in the rendering of textural details, this panel is one of Gossaert's finest late works. (http://www.metmuseum.org)