As part of the successful collaboration between the Kunsthistorisches Museum and the Government of Flanders to showcase a loan from a Flemish collection for a year in the newly-installed Kunstkammer the museum welcomes the third annual loan from a Flemish museum – a diptych from the Museum voor Schone Kunsten in Ghent. The right wing of the “Diptych with Margaret of Austria Worshipping the Virgin and Child” shows the archduchess kneeling at a prayer stool in her private bedchamber; she has turned to face the Virgin Mary depicted on the left wing. Margaret is wearing a gold brocade court dress edged in velvet and a black cap; neither the cap nor her precious robe are a reference to her widowhood but reflect contemporary fashion. This suggests that the painting dates from before the death of her third husband, Duke Philibert II of Savoy, who died in 1504, because as a widow Margaret always wore mourning. The arms on

Read More: A diptych from the Museum voor Schone Kunsten in Ghent on loan to museum in Vienna