Saint Luke painting the Virgin

Saint Luke Drawing the Virgin, by Rogier van der Weyden, c. 1435–40, Museum of Fine Arts in Boston

Saint Luke painting the Virgin (German and Dutch: Lukas-Madonna) is a devotional subject in art showing Luke the Evangelist painting the Virgin Mary with the Child Jesus. Such paintings were often created during the Renaissance for chapels of Saint Luke in European churches, and frequently recall the composition of the Salus Populi Romani, an icon based on the legend of Luke's portrait of Mary. Versions of the subject were sometimes painted as the masterpiece that many guilds required an artist to submit before receiving the title of master.