MANHATTAN'S staid Frick Collection last week put on display the elaborately splendid painting opposite. Begun by Jan van Eyck, and finished after his death by his disciple Petrus Christus, it has the grace and precision, the atmosphere of Tightness and relaxation, common to Early Flemish masterpieces. The picture shows the Virgin and Child flanked by Saints Barbara and Elizabeth of Hungary. Kneeling in adoration is the Carthusian prior who commissioned the painting for his church in 1441. Acquired a century ago by Paris' Baron de Rothschild, the picture has now passed to the FrickĀfor a rumored $1,000,000.
In museums, the great religious...
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