The Education of the Virgin

Michaelina Wautier was a rare female painter active in Antwerp in the mid-seventeenth century, one of very few women who produced large-scale oil paintings in the Flemish Baroque tradition. Her Education of the Virgin depicts Anne teaching the young Mary to read — a domestic and devotional scene that simultaneously celebrated female piety and female literacy. Wautier's access to large-format painting was exceptional for a woman of her time; her brother Charles was also a painter, which likely provided workshop access. The work dates from around 1650–60, when she was at the height of her powers.

Wautier works at a scale and with a directness of light that recalls Rubens's domestic religious scenes, with Anne's maternal figure bathed in soft window light from the left. The young Mary's white dress and the opened book are the compositional focal points, rendered with smooth, assured brushwork that belies the gender barriers Wautier had to overcome.