Madonna of the Daffodils with the Christ Child and Donors

This panel depicts a plain interior adorned only with a green curtain, which creates the background, leaving one section of the wall visible. Before it, and occupying the centre of the composition, is the Virgin holding some narcissi, and the Christ Child. Flanking them is the pair of unidentified donors. The most striking feature of the panel is the contrast between the realism, austerity and sobriety of the donors and the idealization, spontaneous movement and freshness of the group formed by the Virgin and Child.

The central group in this painting became extremely popular in its own day and there are numerous copies and versions. The present panel has been related to two other similar compositions, one in the Centraal Museum in Utrecht and the other in the Berlin Gemäldegalerie.