The Virgin and Child with St. Barbara, St. Elizabeth, and Jan Vos

Jan van Eyck

A painting once imbued with the indulgence of forgiveness, Jan Vos, the monk Patron who is pictured kneeling before the Virgin Mary, ensured that any who said ‘Ave Maria’ before the image would receive forty days off their time in purgatory. The indulgence, however, was only valid so long as the painting remained in the Carthusian order for which it was commissioned, so when it was purchased in 1954 its powers of penance were lost. Van Eyck filled this commission with not only his signature style and unparalleled artistic ability, but also his trademark iconography. Behind Mary, an imagined city scape appears through the arches and in the cupola of Barbara’s tower, a statue of the deity Mars resides. Van Eyck places Jan Vos in the centre of the work, flanked by two saints, as he pays his respect and reverence to Mary and the infant Jesus. He collapses modernity into antiquity, imagination into reality and religious power into oil paint.

Sunday 25th October

The Moon moves deeper through Pisces, associated in biodynamics with water and the leafy aspect of the plant, drawing our attention to the morning dew. Before the day warms, step into the garden and notice the droplets resting on leaves, threading spiders’ webs and catching the first light. Formed as moisture condenses onto surfaces cooled during the night, dew makes visible something usually unseen: the water held in the air around us. We might see these droplets as a quiet meeting between the plant and its wider surroundings, an image that speaks to the biodynamic understanding of the garden as part of a greater whole. Pause before beginning your work and watch how differently each leaf holds the water. As the sunlight strengthens, this brief world of droplets disappears, reminding us how much there is to notice when we arrive with time to look.