François Verwilt’s re?ned technique, featuring precise brushwork, primary colours and clear daylight, re?ects an internatonal classicist trend adopted by painters in Utrecht, where Verwilt trained. Catholic viewers would have appreciated this apocryphal scene in which playful angels tutor the youthful Virgin Mary. Clothes piled on the ?oor recall the legend that Mary sewed vestments for the Temple priests. The central ?gure may be a portrait in disguise.