When the Holy Family Went Viral

Maryan Ainsworth is Alvaró Saieh Curator Emerita of European Paintings at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. She has concentrated on early Netherlandish, French, and German paintings, in particular their technical examination. Maryan has taught Technical Art History at Barnard and Columbia, the Institute of Fine Arts (NYU), and Princeton University. She is the author of numerous articles; her award-winning exhibition catalogues and books encompass The Met’s Early Netherlandish and Early German paintings, and monographs on Petrus Christus, Gerard David, Jan Gossart, Pieter Coecke van Aelst, and Jan van Eyck’s Crucifixion and Last Judgment.

Dr. Thom Kren was founding curator of the Manuscripts Department at The J. Paul Getty Museum from 1984 until 2012. Its holdings now rank among the premier manuscripts collections in the United States. With Dr. Scot Mc Kendrick, he organized the exhibition Illuminating the Renaissance: The Triumph of Flemish Manuscript Painting in Europe, at the Getty and the Royal Academy, London in 2003-2004. They received the Eric Mitchell Prize for best exhibition catalogue in English along with the International Eugène Baie Award. In 2018-2019, he organized the exhibition The Renaissance Nude for the Getty and the Royal Academy.

Beth received her PhD from Cornell University and began her career at the Getty Museum's Department of Manuscripts in 1996. During her tenure, she has curated or co-curated numerous exhibitions, including the 2010 exhibition Imagining the Past in France, 1250–1500, and the 2019 exhibition Book of Beasts: The Bestiary in the Medieval World. She specializes in the study of manuscript illumination in northern Europe from the Gothic period through the Renaissance. She has published on French vernacular manuscripts, especially history and romance, as well as the role of Flemish devotional and secular illumination at the Burgundian court. Her recent research centers on the depiction of animals in bestiaries and other illuminated manuscripts.

Anne received her MA from The Courtauld Institute of Art and PhD from Columbia University. She joined the Getty Museum's Department of Paintings in 1998 and specializes in Flemish, Dutch, and German painting before 1800. Anne’s research interests include the works of Rubens and Rembrandt, collaboration in painting, collecting Netherlandish art in the Western United States, corporate devotional practice, and the technical study of works of art.