Triptych with Scenes from the Life of the Virgin by Dirk Bouts, ca.1465. Rec. October 29th, 2025.

American Friends helps share the Prado's collection with a weekly session in English on the museum's social media. All of our projects are made possible thanks to contributor support. Join and help us do more. https://www.afpradomuseum.org Bouts, Dirk (Haarlem, ca. 1420 - Leuven, ca. 1475) Little is certain about the life of Dirk or Dierick Bouts, who became official painter to the city of Leuven, with the authors who have studied the painter in disagreement on the stylistic and chronological development of his production, owing in part to the scant number of documented works attributed to him. The opinion that the triptych is the work of Bouts with Rogierian influence began to gain ground in the 1920s, since the Prado triptych displays distinctive technical and artistic features typical of Bouts. Within the artwork itself we see various episodes of the life of the Virgin Mary, from the Annunciation to the Adoration of the Magi. The architectural frames surrounding the scenes of the triptych have been interpreted as a boundary or gateway between the earthly world of the spectator and the divine realm depicted in the paintings.