Anna van Bergen (1492–1541) and Her Son Hendrik (born 1519) as the Virgin and Child

Gossaert's remarkable painting of Anna van Bergen and her son Hendrik as the Virgin and Child, dated 1517, conflates portraiture with religious imagery in a bold compositional conceit. The sitter, a noblewoman from one of the leading families of the Habsburg Netherlands, is depicted as the Madonna nursing the Christ Child — a daring assertion of spiritual identification with the Virgin that was acceptable in elite Netherlandish devotional practice.

Gossaert's oil-on-wood technique combines meticulous portrait naturalism with the idealized conventions of Marian imagery. The noblewoman's individual features are clearly recognizable within the sacred composition, while the child and surrounding elements are painted with the polished precision of his mature style.