Detail of St. Luke and the angel, infrared reflectogram ; As the patron saint of painters, Luke is usually shown in his atelier sketching the Virgin and Child sitting before him. Here, however, the saint kneels at a prie-dieu in a Renaissance hall with a tempietto adorned by a statue of Moses holding the Ten Commandments. The Virgin and Child appear as a vision, supported by putti that prepare to crown the Virgin as Queen of Heaven. The early 1520s was a time of growing religious tension, when the Protestant theologian Martin Luther preached against religious imagery. Gossaert's pictorial strategy offered an argument against iconoclasm. St. Luke, the angel, and Moses with the Old Testament law against idol worship are arranged along the same vertical axis. Because an angel guides Luke's drawing hand, the image is created as a result of the spiritual guidance of God and therefore sanctioned. This painting is among Gossaert's most magnificent, demonstrating his sophisticated assimilation of Italian Renaissance architecture and decoration merged with the illusionistic effects produced by his extraordinary Northern technique and meticulous execution. (http://www.metmuseum.org)