In his Schilder-Boeck (Book on Picturing) of 1604 Karel van Mander wrote about Jan Gossart: " . . . when in the service of the marquis de Veere, Mabuse [Gossart] painted an image of Mary in which the face was painted after the marquis' wife and the little child after her child . . . " This painting may be a replica of Gossart’s lost original portrait of Anna van Bergen, the wife of Adolf of Burgundy, marquis de Veere, and their son, Hendrik, in the guise of the Virgin and Child. As such, Anna aspired to emulate the standard of ideal virtue and motherhood exemplified by the Virgin.