Rogier van der Weyden became Brussels’s official painter by the 1430s.  

This painting is allegedly the first one he made in that office.  The setting is based on a traditional belief that Saint Luke had painted the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus from life, despite the fact that Luke was alive long after she and the baby Messiah were long gone.  It didn’t stop the Middle Ages and the Renaissance: many painters’ guilds were named after Luke, and hundreds of icons were alleged to be painted by his hand.

There’s more to this painting than meets the eye.  For starters, it may not actually be Saint Luke painting Mary, but in fact, Weyden himself.  “Luke,” compared to the two figures to the left, is painted more detailed and realistically.  A certain Spanish court painter did something similar much later, if I remember correctly.  Scattered across the painting are various symbols with religious significance: the throne behind the Virgin, the human figurines on the throne’s arm closest to the the viewer, and a bull behind the painter.  The first signifies Mary’s future status, the second represent her destiny to liberate man from the original sin of Adam and Eve, and the third is Saint Luke’s personal symbol.  Additionally, X-ray images reveal Weyden went thorugh several revisions right under the finished product, including changes of position in hands and in facial expression.

Saint Luke was one of the Four Evangelists, the men credited with writing the Four Gospels that make up the bulk of the New Testament.  Of the four books, Luke’s rendition of Jesus’s life and ministry is written with the most focus on his divine and otherworldly nature.  Thematically, his version of the Gospel centers primarily on forgiveness and mercy.  Only in Luke does the parable of the Prodigal Son and the washing of the woman’s feet show up.