Depiction of Mary Reading from a Manuscript Book by Hans Memling

One of the largest surviving Netherlandish depictions of The Annunciation, the panel painting by Hans Memling preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is based upon a design by Rogier van der Weyden. The painting is notable for depicting the Virgin Mary reading from what appears to be a small manuscript codex during the very early years of the transition from manuscript to print, from about 1465 to 1475.

". . . this imposing painting may have been the left wing of a triptych commissioned by the Clugny family, whose coat of arms decorates the carpet and window. The composition is based on a design by Rogier van der Weyden. Possibly commissioned before his death in 1464, it was painted by Hans Memling who, technical evidence suggests, was a journeyman in Rogier's workshop before establishing himself in Bruges in 1465" (http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/110001941, accessed 10-25-2011).