her arms. She is clothed in a blue dress adorned only with a red robe and single band of ermine fur. Both her clothing and stance are similar in their simplicity to the Madonna of the Dry Tree. The depiction of the child is somewhat reminiscent of van Eyck's Dresden Triptych. The figures are grouped in a high portico or loggia that opens to a city-view and background landscape. The tradition of a donor kneeling before the Virgin is common in Early Netherlandish art, with van Eyck's Madonna of Chancellor Rolin perhaps the most notable example, which Christus would have seen. Christus borrows that painting's line of floor tiles, which are intended to separates the earthly realm from the heavenly. The art historian Maryan Ainsworth writes that Christus pushed the figures into a corner, making it more intimate and utilizing asymmetrical angles characteristic of his work. The art historian Joel Morgan Upton describes the arrangement as "strictly parallel" with a foreshortened foreground, in a "diagonal, asymmetrical placement...activated by a striking oblique placement of figures." The distinction between the figures and the space around them is characteristic of Christus's work, as is its one-point perspective. The viewer gazes on the Virgin from the same perspective as the kneeling monk, is drawn into the mood of the Sacra conversazione, which is emphasized by the richness of the world beyond the window. The cityscape in the near background has been identified as Bruges in the 1450s, and is depicted with an unusually high degree of detail. Within the loggia, Saint Barbara's attribute of the tower resembles the Belfry of Bruges. To the exterior's far left in the square called the Huidenvettersplein people can be seen scurrying about, while and a tiny figure is visible seated a white horse. Through the center window the city's canals and small lake can be seen beneath a towered bridge. References Citations Sources Ainsworth, Maryan. Petrus Christus: Renaissance Master of Bruges. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994. Lane, Barbara. "Petrus Christus: A Reconstructed Triptych with an Italian Motif". Art Bulletin, Vol. 52, No. 4, (Dec., 1970) Sterling, Charles. "Observations on Petrus Christus". The Art Bulletin, Vol. 53, No. 1, (Mar., 1971) Upton, Joel Morgan. Petrus Christus: His Place in Fifteenth-Century Flemish Painting. Penn State Press, 1990. Further reading Capron, Emma; Maryan Ainsworth and Till-Holger Borchert. The Charterhouse of Bruges: Jan Van Eyck, Petrus Christus, and Jan Vos.