Opening Doors. The Early Netherlandish Triptych Reinterpreted [1 ed.] 0271048409, 9780271048406

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OPENING . DOORS 1he Early Netherlandish Triptych Reinte1preted

LYNN F. JACOBS

The Pennsylvania State University Press University Park, Pennsylvania

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-

Copyright © 2012 The

Publication Data

Pennsylvania State University

Jacobs, Lynn F., r955-

All rights reserved

Opening doors : the early

Designed by Jason Harvey

etherlandish triptych reinterpreted I Lynn F.Jacobs.

P·

cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index. Summary: "A study ofNetherland-

Printed in China by Everbest Printing Co., through Four Colour Print Group, Louisville, KY Published by The Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, PA 16802-1003

ish triptychs from the early fifteenth

The Pennsylvania State University

century through the early

Press is a member of the Associa-

seventeenth century, covering works

tion of American University Presses.

by Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, Hugo van der Goes, Hieronymus Bosch, and Peter Paul Rubens. Explores how the triptych format structures and generates meaning"-Provided by publisher. ISBN

978-0-271-04840-6 (cloth :

alk. paper) r. Triptychs-Netherlands. 2. Triptychs-Belgium.

It is the policy of The Pennsylvania State University Press to use acid-free paper. Publications on uncoated stock satisfy the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Material, ANSI

z39.48- r992.

Additional credits: frontispiece, detail, plate 3 r; page iv, detail, plate

I. Title

21; page 32, detail, plate 6; page 86,

II. Title: Early Netherlandish

detail, figure 46; page r 88, detail,

triptych reinterpreted.

figure 122.

ND644.J33 20! I 759.9492-dc22 201 IOI 1268

This book is dedicated with all my love to my son Jonah Tov Hyman

C O N T ENTS List of Illustrations. ...... . .. . . . . . . . .. . . . . ..... . .... ... . .. . .. ... . . .. ... .......... . . .. .. v111 Acknowledgments .... .. ....................... . . . . ... . ... .. .. . . . . ....... .. . .... . .... . xvi Introduction: The Triptych as a "Painting with D oors" ... . ... . ........ . .. . .. .. ..... . ..

1

PART I : ORIGINS AND THE FIRST HALF OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY

The Emergence of the Early Netherlandish Triptych I: 2

Robert Campin (and His Associates). ....... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 33 The Emergence of the Early Netherlandish Triptych II: Jan van Eyck . . . . . . . . . . ...... . .... . . ... . ... . ..... . . . .. . ..... . .... . ... . ..... . . . ...... 6I

PART II: THE SECOND HALF OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY

3 4

The Triptych Reformulated: Rogier van der W eyden ..... .. . . . .. ...... .......... 87 The Triptych Popularized: Painters of the Second H alf of the

5

Fifteenth Century ..... . .. ..... . .. ........................ . . . . . .... .. . . . . .. .. .. .. . n 9 The Triptych Unified: Memling, D avid, and Later FifteenthCentury Painters in Bruges . . . . .. .... . ... . ... .. ... . ... . ... . .... . . .. .. . ... ..... .... 151

PART 111 : THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY AND BEYOND

6

The World Triptych: Hieronymus Bosch ..................... . .. .. ..... ...... ... 189

7 8

The Triptych in the Age of the Renaissance and the Reformation ... . .. .. . .. .. 220 Coda: The Triptych in the Age of Rubens. . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . ... . ... . . 257

Notes .......... . ..... ..... ... . . . ....... . . . .... . . . . . . ............ . . .. .. . ........... . ... . 281 Bibliography ..... . ... . ... . ............ .. .. . ... .. .. . . ... ........ . . ....... .. ... . . . . . . ... 342 Index ................. .. ................... . ... . ... . ............. . .. . ........ .......... 351

ILLUSTRATIONS

COLOR PLATES

Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld

Berlin. Photo: Bildarchiv Preussi-

16.Joos van Ghent, Calvary

(following page 168)

Gallery, London.

scher Kulturbesitz/Art Resource,

triptych, ea. 1467-69. Oil on panel,

1. Robert Cam pin, Merode

6.Jan van Eyck, Ghent Altarpiece,

Triptych, ea. 1425. Oil on panel,

exterior, 14 3 2. Oil on panel, ea. 3 75

64. 5

x

x

117. 8 cm. The Metropolitan

260 cm. Saint Bavo's Cathedral,

11. Rogier van der Weyden, Beaune

Ghent. Photo© IRPA-KIK,

Altarpiece, interior, ea. 1445- 48. Oil

Cloisters Collection, 1956 (56.70).

Brussels.

on panel, ea. 2 24. 8

Museum of Art/Art Resource, N.Y. 2. Anonymous, Norfolk Triptych, interior, ea. 1415. Oil on panel, 33

x

Beuningen, Rotterdam . Photo: Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam. 3. Anonymous, Norfolk Triptych, exterior, ea. 1415. Oil on panel, 33

7.Jan van Eyck, Ghent Altarpiece, interior, 1432. Oil on panel, ea. 375 x

57.8 cm. Museum Boijmans Van

x

3 r. 1 cm. Museum Boijmans Van

5 20 cm. Saint Bavo's Cathedral,

x

546. 1 cm.

x

Lukas-Art in Flanders VZW. 17. Hugo van der Goes, Portinari Altarpiece, interior, ea. 1475-76. Oil

Hotel-Dieu, Beaune. Photo: Erich

on panel, 254

Lessing/Art Resource, N.Y.

Florence. Photo: Scala/Art

12. Rogier van der Weyden, Beaune

x

589.2 cm. Uflizi,

Resource, N.Y.

Ghent. Photo© IRPA-KIK,

Altarpiece, exterior, ea. 1445-48.

18. Master of Saint Catherine,

Brussels.

Oil on panel, ea. 224-8

Master of Saint Barbara, and

8.Jan van Eyck, Dresden Triptych, interior, 1437. Oil on panel, 33.1

x

273.1 cm.

Hotel-Dieu, Beaune. Photo: Erich

x

(Melbourne Triptych), interior, ea.

54.7 cm (with original frame).

13. Rogier van der Weyden,

Gemaldegalerie, Staatliche

Columba Triptych, ea. 1450-56 . Oil

Kunstsammlungen, Dresden.

on panel, 139.5

Photo: Bildarchiv Preussischer

Pinakothek, Bayerische Staatsge-

298.3 cm. Alte

x

Master of the Princely Portraits, triptych of the Miracles of Christ

Lessing/Art Resource, N .Y.

1490-1500. Oil on panel, 122

x

Melbourne.

Kulturbesitz/Art Resource, N .Y.

maldesammlungen, Munich. Photo:

19. Master of Saint Barbara,

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen,

(Hans-Peter Klut) .

Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbe-

Rest on the Flight into Egypt and

9.Jan van Eyck,Annunciation,

Saint Peter, exterior of the triptych

sitz/Art Resource, N .Y.

of

4. Robert Campin, Trinity, ea. 1430.

exterior of the Dresden Triptych,

14. Dieric Bouts, Martyrdom

Oil on panel, 147.5

1437\ Oil on panel, 33.1

Saint Erasmus triptych, ea. 1460-64.

x

57.6 cm.

Stadel Museum, Frankfurt am

x

27.2 cm

(with b_riginal frame) . Gemaldegale-

Oil on panel, 82

x

149.5 cm.

Main. Photo © U. Edelmann-

rie, Sta::e~he Kunstsammlungen,

Church of Saint Peter, Leuven.

Stadel Museum/ARTOTHEK.

Dresden. Pliot-oJ3ildarchiv ·-~

Photo© IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

5. Robert Campin, Seilern Entombment triptych, ea. 1410-20.

Oil on panel, 60

x

93.9 cm (without

frame). Courtauld Institute Galleries, London. © The Samuel

Preussischer Kulturbesitz/Art Resource, N.Y. (Hans-Peter Klut).

15. Dieric Bouts, Holy Sacrament altarpiece, 1464-68. Oil on panel, 294.5 cm.Church of Saint

10. Rogier van der Weyden,

ea. 183

Miraflores Triptych, ea. 1440-44.

Peter, Leuven. Photo© IRPA-KIK,

Oil on panel, 74

x

133.6 cm.

Gemaldegalerie, Staatliche Museen,

x

Brussels.

184

cm. National Gallery of Victoria,

Beuningen, Rotterdam. Photo: Rotterdam.

viii

214.9

Cathedral, Ghent. Photo ©

Museum of Art, New York, The Image © The Metropolitan

326.5 cm. Saint Bavo's

N .Y./Gemaldegalerie, Staatliche Museen, Berlin (Ji:irg P. Anders).

of the M iracles of Christ (Melbourne Triptych), ea. 1490-1500. Oil on panel, 122

x

92 cm. National

Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. 20. Hans Memling, Saint John the Baptist and Veronica, exterior of the Epiphany triptych (Jan Floreins

Triptych), 1479. Oil on panel, 56 .7 x

67.4 cm. Memling Museum, Saint

John's Hospital,Bruges. Photo© Lukas-Art in Flanders VZW.

2 1. H ans Memling, Epiphany

27. Gerard D avid, Nativity triptych,

34. Qientin Massys, Saint Anne

triptych (Jan Floreins Triptych),

interior, ea. 15 10-15 . Oil on canvas,

triptych, interior, 1507- 9. Oil on

interior, 1479. Oil on panel, 56.7 x

transferred from wood, 90. 2

panel, ea. 224.5

134.4 cm; each wing 48.3

x

25 cm.

x

1J J. 9

cm. The Metropolitan Museum of

Memling Museum , Saint John's

Art, New York. The Jules Bache

H ospital, Bruges. Photo: Erich

Collection, 1949. Image© The

Lessing/ Art Resource, N.Y.

Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art

22. H ans Memling,Annunciation,

x

401.8 cm. Musees

royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels. 35.Joach.im Patinir, Saint Jerome

Resource, N .Y.

2. Pieter Aertsen, Christ in the H ouse

ofMary and Martha, 1552. Oil on

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New

panel, 60

York, Fletcher Fund, 1936. Image

sches Museum, Vienna. Photo: Erich Lessing/ Art Resource, N .Y.

1467- 70. Oil on panel, each panel

exterior of the Nativity triptych, ea.

© The Metropolitan Museum of

83 .2

15 10-15. Oil on panel, 90.2

Art/Art Resource, N.Y.

x

62.8

Bruges. Photo © Lukas-Art in

cm. Mauritshuis, The H ague, on

Flanders VZW.

loan from the Rijksmuseum,

23. Gerard David,Annunciation, exterior of the wings depicting the

Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource, N .Y.

panel, ea. 120 x 152.5 cm. The

28 . Gerard D avid, L andscape Scene,

26.5 cm. Groeningemuseum,

1. Robert Cam pin, Merode Triptych (color plate 1), detail, with keys.

triptych, interior, ea. 15 18. Oil on

exterior of the Jan C rabbe Triptych, x

BLACK-AND-WHITE FIGURES

x

ror.5 cm. Kunsthistori-

3.Joos van Cleve,An nunciation, ea.

Amsterdam. Photo: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

36. Lucas van Leyden, Dance

1525. Oil on wood, 86.4

Around the Golden Calf triptych,

The Metropolitan Museum of Art,

x

80 cm.

interior, ea. 1529-30. Oil on panel,

New York, The Friedsam Collection,

93 x 127 cm. Rijksmuseum,

Bequest of Michael Friedsam, 193 r.

Carrying of the Cross and the

29 . Hieronymus Bosch, H ay Wain,

Amsterdam. Photo: Rijksmuseum,

Image© The Metropolitan

R esurrection, ea." 1505. Oil on panel,

interior, ea. 1500-1505 . Oil on

Amsterdam.

Museum of Art/ Art Resource, N.Y.

ea. 87 .7 x 60 cm. The Metropolitan

panel, 134.9

Museum of Art,

Madrid. Photo: Erich L essing/Art

J 7. Peter Paul Rubens, R aising of the

4. Ascension, Saint 1heodore, and

ew York, Robert

Lehman Collection, 1975. Image

© The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource, N.Y.

x

185.1 cm . The Prado,

Resource, N.Y.

457

exterior of the H ay /i,{,in, ea.

exterior of the Passion Triptych

90.2 cm. The Prado, Madrid. Photo:

(Greverade Triptych), 1491. Oil on

Scala/Art Resource, N.Y.

Li.ibeck. © Museen fur Kunst und Kulturgeschichte der H ansestadt Lubeck.

triptych, interior, 1467-71. Oil on x

360.8 cm (with frame).

Muzeum Naradowe, Gdansk. Photo: Scala/Art Resource, N .Y. 26 . Hans Memling, D onors and Saints, exterior of the L ast j udgment

triptych, 1467-71. Oil on panel, 242 x

x

of

Earthly D elights, interior, ea. 1505 .

Oil on panel, 220

x

180 cm (with frame). Muzeum

Naradowe, Gdansk. Photo: Scala/ Art Resource, N.Y.

J 2. Hieronymus Bosch, Creation

the World, exterior of the Garden

on panel, 460

x

300 cm. C athedral

of of

195 cm . The Prado,

the I ncredulity of Saint ~omas (Rockox Triptych), ea. 1 12-15. Oil on panel, 145 x 235 c

Koninklijk

Museum voor Schon Kunsten,

M adrid. Photo: Erich Lessi ng/ Art

Antwerp. Photo

Resource, N.Y.

Flanders V

33 . Master of Delft,Annunciation,

40. Peter Paul Rubens, Ildefonso

ukas-Art in

exterior of the Virgin and Child

Triptych, 1630-32. Oil on panel,

triptych, 1490-15 ro. Oil on panel,

35 1 x 450 cm. Kunsthistorisches

84.5

x

60 cm. Museum Catharij-

neconvent, Utrecht, on loan from

27.1 cm, each side 38 .6

x

x

13 cm.

Catherine, M ount Sinai. Reproduced through the courtesy of the Michigan-Princeton-Alexandria Expedition to M ount Sinai and by permission of Saint Catherine's Monastery, Sinai, Egypt. 5. H arbaville Triptych, tenth

39 . Peter Paul Rubens, t4 ptych of

Earthly D elights, ea. 15o 5. Oil on x

the Raising ofthe Cross, I 6 ro. Oil

IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

Prado, Madrid. P hoto: Erich

panel, 220

J 8. Peter Paul Rubens, Saints

Amandus, U{ilburga, Eligius, and

of Our Lady, Antwerp. Photo ©

389 cm. The

Saint George, 9th- roth centuries.

Tempera on wood, center 41 .8

Old Library, M onastery of Saint

Catherine ofAlexandria, exterior of

Lessing/Art Resource, N. Y.

2 5. Hans Memling, Last j udgment panel, 242

3 r. Hieronymus Bosch, Garden

640 cm. Cathedral of Our

Art in Flanders VZW.

1500-1505. Oil on panel, 134.9

frame). Sankt-Annen-Museu m,

x

Lady, Antwerp. Photo © Lukas-

30. Hieronymus Bosch, Peddler,

24. H ans Memling,Annunciation,

panel, 2 2 I. 5 x 166 cm (including

Cross, interior, 16 ro. Oil on panel,

Museum, Vienna. Photo:

century. Ivory, 24

x

28 cm. Louvre,

Paris. Photo: Reunion des musees nationaux/Art Resource, N.Y. (D aniel Arnaudet). 6. SravelotTriptych, ea. II56- 58 . Gold and cloisonne enamel, 48.4

x

66 cm. The Pierpont M organ Library, New York. Purchase,]. P. Morgan (1867- 1943), 1910, AZoor. Photo: The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York.

Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

the Rijksrnuseurn, Amsterdam. Photo: Museum C atharijneconvent, Utrecht.

ILLUSTRATIO ' S

Ix

\

)

7. StavelotTriptych (fig. 6), detail,

15 . Calvary and Saints triptych, ea.

22 . Gerard David (center) and

29 . "Sunday view" of the Ghent

with Byzantine triptychs closed.

1400. Oil and gold leaf on panel, 54

Pieter Pourbus (wings), Tranifigura-

Altarpiece, according to Heinz J.

Photo: The Pierpont Morgan

x

tion, center ea. 1500, with wings

Sauermost.

Library, New York.

Collection OCMW, Stedelijke

added in r 5 73. Oil on panel, cen ter

Musea Mechelen, inv. ocmw Slr9 .

174

8. Reliquary of the True Cross, ea. II 60. Gilt, copper, and enamel, 5 5

50.2 cm (without socle).

Photo© IRPA-KIK, Brussels. 16. Robert Campin, Marriage

ofthe

Croix, Liege. Photo© IRPA-KIK,

Virgin, ea. 1440 (?). Oil on panel,

Brussels.

78.5

x

Louvre, Paris. Photo: Reunion des

Flemalle), Saint John the Baptist,

musees nationaux/Art Resource,

reverse of Thief to the Left of Christ

N.Y. (Jean-Gilles Berizzi) .

(fragment of a triptych), ea. 1430.

ro. Venetian Master (?) , Man

of Sor-

rows triptych, ea. 1300. Tempera

and gold leaf on panel, each panel

dell'Opera Metropolitana, Siena. Photo: Scala/Art Resource, N.Y. 1 2. Anonymous Italian, reliquary with Madonna and Child with Saints, 1375-80. Tempera and gold

leaf on panel, 43 .9 x 44.5 cm. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. Photo © The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.

Humility with Saints, 1375- 80.

Tempera and gold leaf on panel, 67.2 x 55.2 cm. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. Photo © The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.

of Sorrows reliquary

triptych, ea. 1400-1410. Gold and enamel, 12

x

12.7 cm. Rijksmu-

seum, Amsterdam. Photo: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

Madrid. Photo© IRPA-KIK,

panel, 220

Brussels.

Madrid . Photo© IRPA-KIK,

x

259.5 cm. The Prado,

Brussels. 33. Rogier van der Weyden, x

Crucifixion triptych, ea. 1440. Oil on

II3.5 cm. Walker Art Gallery,

panel, center 96

Liverpool. Photo© IRPA-KIK,

101

Brussels. 25 .Jan van Eyck,Annunciation diptych, ea. 14 3 7-3 9. Oil on panel,

x

x

69 cm, each side

35 cm. Kunsthistorisches

Museum, Vienna. Photo © IRPA-KIK, Brussels. 34. Rogier van der Weyden

92 .2 cm. Stadel Museum, Frankfurt

38.8

am Main. Photo © U. Edelmann-

frame) . Museo Thyssen-Borne-

I

Stadel Museum/ARTOTHEK.

misza, Madrid. Photo © Museo

3 8. 5 cm. Louvre, Cabinet des

Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Dessins, Paris. Photo: Reunion des

19. Coronation

of Charles VI,

fol. 3v

of Charles V's Grandes chroniques de

x

46.7 cm (including original

(Jose Loren).

(workshop) , Saint Eloy triptych, 440s. Pen and ink on paper, 25

x

musees nationaux/Art Resource, N.Y. (Jean-Gilles Berizzi).

France, ea. r 3 80. Tempera and gold

26. Jan van Eyck, Madonna with

leaf on vellum, 33

Chancellor Nicholas Rolin (Rolin

35. Rogier van der Weyden, Saint

Madonna), ea. 1435 . Oil on panel,

John the Baptist triptych, 1440s. Oil

x

22 cm.

Bibliotheque nationale de France,

66 x 62 cm. Louvre, Paris. Photo ©

on panel, 77 x 144 cm. Gemiildega-

Bibliotheque nationale de France.

IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

lerie, Staatliche Museen, Berlin.

20. Robert Campin, Saint Veronica,

27 .Jan van Eyck, Madonna with

ea. 1430. Oil on panel, 148.2

Canon George van der Paele ( Van der

Paris,

of

3 2. Rogier van der Weyden, Descent from the Cross, ea. r 4 3 5. Oil on

Cam pin, Descent from the Cross

x

by Asperen de Boer. Photo: J. R. J. van Asperen de Boer.

panel ror x 47 cm. The Prado,

triptych, 1460s. Oil on panel, 60

Oil and gold leaf on panel, 133.7

placement of wings, reconstruction

Triptych, 1438. Oil on panel, each

Stadel Museum, Frankfurt am

(fragment of a triptych), ea. 1430.

r 86.7 x r 8 r.6 cm. Museo

Werl and Saint John the Baptist and

Main. Photo © U. Edelmann-

Fleinalle), Thief to the Left of Christ

Virgin, 1342. Tempera on panel,

3 1. Ghent Altarpiece with angled

24. Anonymous, after Robert

92.5 cm.

r 8. Robert Cam pin (Master of

1 r. Pierro Lorenzetti, Birth ofthe

13. Anonymous Italian, Madonna

x

Stadel Museum/ARTOTHEK.

20. I x I 6.5 cm. Private collection.

14. Man

Oil on panel, 134.2

IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

Saint Barbara, wings of the Werl

17. Robert Campin (Master of

19.7 cm.

30. Ghent Altarpiece with closed top tier and open lower tier.

23. Robert Cam pin (?), Heinrich von

89 .8 cm. The Prado, Madrid.

Photo© IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

9. Life of the Virgin triptych, ea. 1315- 35. Ivory, 20

x

120 cm. Onze-Lieve-

Vrouwekerk, Bruges. Photo ©

x

5 2 cm. Tresor de l'eglise Sainte-

x

MS

Fr. 2813 Photo:

x

57.7

cm. Stadel Museum, Frankfurt am

Paele Madonna), 1436. Oil on panel,

Photo: Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz/Art Resource, N .Y. (Jiirg P. Anders).

Main. Photo© IRPA-KIK,

122.1

Brussels.

seum, Bruges. Photo© IRPA-KIK,

Sacraments altarpiece, ea. 1440-45 .

Brussels.

Oil on panel, center 200

2 r. I

Calvary ofH endrik van Rijn,

3 64. Oil and gold leaf on panel,

133.1

x

131.1 cm. Koninklijk

x

157.8cm. Groeningemu-

28.Jan van Eyck, Ghent Altarpiece, exterior (color plate 6), detail, room

Museum voor Schone Kunsten,

of the Annunciation. Photo ©

Antwerp. Photo© IRPA-KIK,

IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

36. Regier van der Weyden, Seven

each side 119

x

x

97 cm,

63 cm. Koninklijk

Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp. Photo© IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

Brussels.

X

J L LUSTRATJONS

54.Joos van Ghent, Calvary

3 7. Rogier van der Weyden,

44. Circle ofDieric Bouts

in the Flakbunker Friedrichshain in

Bladelin Triptych, ea. 1450. Oil on

(Netherlandish) or Master of the

May 1945, formerly in the

triptych, exterior, ea. 1467- 69. Oil

panel, 93.5 x 175 .2 cm. Gemaldega-

Munich Arrest of Christ, Saint John

Kaiser-Friedrich Museum, Berlin.

on panel, 216 .5 x 161.4 cm. Saint

lerie, Staatliche Museen, Berlin.

the Baptist and Saint John the

Photo: Bildarchiv Preussischer

Bavo's Cathedral, Ghent. Photo ©

Photo © IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

Evangelist, reverses of the Arrest

Kulturbesitz/Art Resource, N .Y.

IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

3 8. Follower of Rogier van der Weyden, Sforza Triptych, 1460s (?). Oil on panel, 54 x 150.5 cm. Musees royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels. Photo© IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

and R esurrection, 1480s. Oil on panel, each panel 102 .8 x 65 .5 cm. Saint John the Baptist: The

Cleveland Museum of Art. Gift of the Hanna Fund 195 r.354. Photo: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Saint John the Evangelist: Bayerische

48. Anonymous, after Dieric Bouts,

55. Hugo van der Goe s,Nativity,

D eposition triptych, ea. 1500. Oil

center panel of the Portinari

on panel, 59.7 x 89.8 cm. Museo

Altarpiece (color plate 17). Photo

del Colegio de Corpus Christi,

© IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

Valencia. Photo © IRPA-KI K, Brussels.

56. Hugo van der Goes,Annunciation, exterior of the Portinari

Staatsgemaldesammlungen-Alte

49. Dieric Bouts (left wing

Annunciation triptych (reconstruct-

Pinakothek, Munich. Owner:

completed by Hugo van der Goes),

panel, 254 x 284.4 cm. Uffizi,

ed), ea. 14 34. Oil on panel, center

Wittelsbacher Ausgleichsfonds.

Martyrdom of Saint Hippolytus,

Florence. Photo © IRPA-KIK,

interior, ea. 1470--74 (center and

Brussels.

39 . Rogier van der Weyden,

87 x 9r.5 cm, each wing 89.7 x 36.5 cm. Center panel: L ouvre, Paris. Photo © IRPA~KIK, Brussels. Wings: Galleria Sabauda, Turin. Photo: Ernani Orcorte.

45 . Geertgen tot Sint Jans, Burning

ofthe Bones of Saint John the Baptist (exterior of the right wing of a triptych), after 1484. Oil on panel, 172 x 139 cm. Kunsthistorisches

40. Rogier van der Weyden

Museum, Vienna. Photo: Erich

(workshop?), Crucifixion triptych

Lessing/Art Resource, N.Y.

(Abegg Triptych), ea. 1430--40. Oil on panel, 103.5 x 138 cm. Abegg-Stiftung, CH-3 13 2 Riggisberg, Inv. Nr. 14.2.63. Photo © Abegg-Stiftung, CH-3132 Riggisberg, 1999 (Christoph von Virag).

46. Petrus Christus, Madonna Enthroned with Saints Jerome and Francis (reconstructed triptych), ea.

1455. Oil on panel, center 46.7 x 44.6 cm, left wing 42 x 21 .2 cm,

right wing), ea. 14 7 5- 70 (left wing). Oil on panel, 91 x 170 cm. Museum van de Sint-Salvatorskathedraal, Bruges. Photo © IRPA-KIK, Brussels. 50. Master of the Embroidered

Altarpiece, ea. 14 7 5-76. Oil on

57. Hans Memling, Benedetto Portinari Triptych, 1497. Oil on panel, ea. 45 x 100 cm. Center panel: Gemaldegalerie, Staatliche Museen, Berlin. Photo: Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz/Art

Foliage, Virgin and Child triptych,

Resource, N.Y. (Jiirg P. Anders).

ea. 1500. Oil on panel, 105 x 176

Wings: Uflizi, Florence. Photo ©

cm . Musee des Beaux-Arts, Lille.

IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

Photo© IRPA-KIK, Brussels. 5 r. Master of the Virgo inter

5 8. Hans Memling, Adriaan Reins Triptych, exterior, 1480. Oil on

right wing 4r.8 x 2r.6 cm. Center

Virgines, Crucifixion triptych,

panel, 54 x 46 cm. Sint-Janshospi-

panel: Stadel Museum, Frankfurt

interior, ea. 1490. Oil on panel, 221

taal, Memlingmuseum, Bruges. Photo © IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

41. Rogier van der Weyden, Braque

am Main. Photo © IRPA-KIK,

x 382 cm. The Bowes Museum,

Triptych, interior, ea. 1452-53. Oil

Brussels. Wings: National Gallery

Barnard Castle. Photo: The Bowes

on panel, 41 x 137 cm (with

of Art, Washington, D.C., Samuel

Museum.

original frame) . Louvre, Paris.

H. Kress Collection. Image courtesy

Photo© IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

of the Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

59. Hans Memling,Adam and Eve, exterior of the Virgin and Child

5 2. Master of the Khanenko

Enthroned triptych, 1480s. Oil on

Adoration, Epiphany triptych,

panel, 69 x 34.6 cm. Kunsthistori-

interior, ea. 1480. Oil on panel, 29 x

sches Museum, Vienna. Photo:

Triptych, exterior, ea. 14 5 2-5 3. Oil

4 7. Petrus Christus, Death of the

39 cm. Musee de !'hotel Sandelin,

Kunsthistorisches Museum.

on panel, 41 x 68 cm (with original

Virgin triptych (reconstructed), ea.

Saint-Omer, Don, 1921-inv. 0248

frame). Louvre, Paris. Photo ©

1460--65. Oil on panel, transferred

CM. Photo © Ph. Beurtheret.

IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

from oak to mahogany, center 17 r. 1

42 . Rogier van der Weyden, Braque

43 . Retable of Sancho de Rojas, from San Benito el Real, Valladolid, ea. 1415. Tempera on panel, 532 x 61 8 cm. The Prado, Madrid.

ILL USTRAT IO NS

x 138-4 cm, each wing 173 x 63 cm. Center panel: Timken Museum of Art, San Diego. Photo: Putnam Foundation, Timken Museum of

60. Hans Memling, Virgin and Child Enthroned triptych, interior,

53. Dieric Bouts, L ast Supper, center

1480s. Oil on panel, ea. 69 x 84 cm.

panel of the H oly Sacrament

Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

altarpiece (color plate 15 ). Photo ©

Photo © IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

Art, San Diego. Wings: destroyed

xl

ofBari,

6r. Hans Memling,Jan Crabbe

68. Gerard David, Virgin and Child,

191 3. Image © The Metropolitan

Nicholas

Triptych, interior, 1467-70. Oil on

Mary Magdalene and Donors,

Museum of Art/Art Resource, N.Y.

the Baptist, exterior of the Life and

panel, ea. 83 x 116.2 cm. Center

exterior of the Baptism triptych,

panel: Museo Civico, Vicenzo.

1502-8.0ilonpanel, 132

Photo © IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

cm. Groeningemuseum, Bruges.

Wings: The Pierpont Morgan

Photo© IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

Library, New York. Purchased by Pierpont Morgan in 1907, AZoro2.1,AZ012.2. Photo: The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York.

x

84.4

69. Hans Memling, Virgin and Child triptych (Pagagnotti Triptych)

(proposed reconstruction), ea. 1480s? Oil on panel, center 5 7 x 42 cm, each wing 59.2 x 19.2 cm.

62 . Hans Memling, Saints

Center panel: Uflizi, Florence.

Christopher and Anthony, exterior of

Photo: Erich Lessing/Art Resource,

74. Hans Memling, Last Judgment triptych (color plate 25), detail,

Miracles

of Saint Godelieve, last

quarter of the fifteenth century. Oil on panel,

portal of heaven. Photo ©

Quirinus, andJohn

I2 5. 1

x

160. 7 cm. The

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New

IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

York,John Stewart Kennedy Fund,

7 5. Hans Memling, Saints and

1912. Image© The Metropolitan

Donors, exterior of the Saint John

Museum of Art/Art Resource, N .Y.

altarpiece, 1479. Oil on panel, 193 .3 x

194.4 cm. Sint-Janshospitaal,

Memlingmuseum, Bruges. Photo © IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

8 r. Master of the Saint Godelieve Legend, Life and Miracles of Saint Godelieve, last quarter of the

fifteenth century. Oil on panel,

the John Donne Triptych, ea. 1480.

N.Y. Wings: National Gallery,

76. Hans Memling, Saint John

125.1

Oil on panel, 72

London. Photo© National Gallery,

altarpiece, 1479. Oil on panel, 193.5

Museum of Art, New York,John

x

62.2 cm.

National Gallery, London. Photo © IRPA-KIK, Brussels. 63. Hans Memling, Saints Blaise,

London/Art Resource, N.Y. 70. Gerard David, Christ Nailed to the Cross triptych, ea. 1480. Oil on

John the Baptist, Jerome, and Giles,

panel, center 48.3

first opening of the Passion

wing 45

x

x

94 cm, each

42 cm. Center panel:

x

389 cm. Sint-Janshospitaal, Mem-

x

311 cm. The Metropolitan

Stewart Kennedy Fund, 1912 .

lingmuseum, Bruges. Photo ©

Image © The Metropolitan

IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

Museum of Art/Art Resource, N .Y.

of

77. Hans Memling, Seven Joys ofthe

82. Hieronymus Bosch, Ship

Virgin, 1489 . Oil on panel, 81

Fools, Allegory of Gluttony and Lust,

x

189

Triptych (Greverade Triptych),

National Gallery, London. Photo©

cm. Alte Pinakothek, Bayerische

and Death and the Miser, interior

1491. Oil on panel, 221.5 x 332 cm.

National Gallery, London/Art

Staatsgemfildesammlungen,

wings of the triptych of the Seven Deadly Sins (reconstructed), 149os?

Sankt-Annen-Museum, Lubeck.©

Resource, N.Y. Wings: Koninklijk

Munich. Photo: Bildarchiv

Museen fur Kunst und Kulturge-

Museum voor Schone Kunsten,

Preussischer Kulturbesitz/Art

Oil on panel, Ship of Fools 5 7. 8 x

schichte der Hansestadt Lubeck.

Antwerp. Photo© IRPA-KIK,

Resource, N .Y.

32.5 cm,Allegory of Gluttony and

64. Hans Memling, Passion Triptych (Greverade Triptych),

Brussels. 7 r. Hans Memling, Epiphany

78 . Master of the Saint Ursula Legend, Nativity triptych, between

Lust 3 5.8

x

the Miser 93

3 2 cm, and Death and x

JI cm. Ship ofFools:

Louvre, Paris. Photo: Reunion des

second opening, 1491. Oil on panel,

triptych, interior, 1470s. Oil

1493 and 1499. Oil on panel, ea.

221.5 x 333 cm.Sankt-Annen-

on panel, ea. 95 x 271 cm. The

74.6 x 133.4 cm. Detroit Institute

Museum, Lubeck. Photo: Scala/Art

Prado, Madrid. Photo: Scala/Art

of Arts, Detroit. Photo ©

Resource, N.Y.

Resource, N.Y.

IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

65. Gerard David, Sedano Triptych,

72 . Hans Memling, Saint

79. Master of the Saint Ursula

interior, ea. 1490. Oil on panel, 9 r. 1

Christopher triptych (Moree!

Legend, Virgin Annunciate, exterior

Rabinowitz, 1959.15.22. Photo:

x 13 2 cm. Louvre, Paris. Photo ©

Triptych), 1484. Oil on panel, 141 x

of the right wing of the Nativity

Yale University Art Gallery/Art

IRPA-KIK, Brussels. 66. Gerard David, Adam and Eve, exterior of the Sedano Triptych, ea.

triptych, between 1493 and 1499.

Resource, N .Y. Death and the Miser: National Gallery of Art, Washing-

© IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

Tommaso Portinari and Maria

18 1 cm. Groeningemuseum, Bruges.

Hannah D . and Louis M.

Oilonpanel,65.1 x 24.2 cm

73. Hans Memling, Portraits of

interior, 1502-8. Oil on panel, 132 x

Art Gallery, New Haven. Gift of

347 .7 cm (with original frame).

1490. Oil on panel, 9 r. 1 x 60.5 cm.

67. Gerard David, Baptism triptych,

N.Y. (Rene-Gabriel Ojeda) . Allegory

of Gluttony and Lust: Yale University

Groeningemuseum, Bruges. Photo

Louvre, Paris. Photo© IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

musees nationaux/Art Resource,

Baroncelli, 1470s. Oil on panel, each

panelca.42 .2 x 32 cm.The

(without frame). Whereabouts

ton, D.C., Samuel H. Kress

unknown. Illustration from Flanders

Collection. Image courtesy of the

in the Fifteenth Century: Art and

Board ofTrustees, National Gallery

Civilisation (Detroit: Detroit

of Art, Washington, D.C.

Institute of Arts, 1960), 165 .

83. Hieronymus Bosch, Peddler,

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New

80. Master of the Saint Godelieve

1490s? Oil on panel, diameter 70.6

York, Bequest of Benjamin Altman,

Legend, Donors with Saints Josse,

cm. Museum Boijmans Van

Photo© IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

xii

ILLUSTRATIONS

of

104. Follower of Lucas van Leyden,

Beuningen, Rotterdam. Photo:

90. Hieronymus Bosch, Passion

97. Hieronymus Bosch, Garden

Kavaler/Art Resource, N.Y.

Scenes, reverse of Saint John on

Earthly Delights (color plate 3 1),

Christ as Man

Patmos, ea. 1500? Oil on panel, 62 x

central panel. Photo © IRPA-KIK,

Kneeling Donor with Saint Anthony,

4r cm. Gemaldegalerie, Berlin.

Brussels.

84. Hieronymus Bosch, Last Judgment triptych, 1480s? Oil on

panel, 164

x

247 cm.Akademie der

bildenden Kiinste, Vienna. Photo © IRPA-KIK, Brussels. 85 . Hieronymus Bosch, Saints James the Greater and Bava, exterior of the Last Judgment triptych, ea. 1496?

Oil on panel, 164

x

120 cm.

Gemaldegalerie der Akademie der bildenden Kiinste, Vienna. Photo:

Photo© IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

ofSorrows and

exterior of the altarpiece of the

98. Southern Netherlandish master

91. Abraham and Melchizedek, Mass

(center) and DirkJacobsz (wings),

Feeding of the Ten Thousand, ea.

1510. Oil on panel, 74.3 x 37 cm. Unknown collection.

of Saint Gregory, Last Supper, and

Rest on the Flight into Egypt

Instruments ofthe Passion, exterior of

triptych, 1530s. Oil on panel, 105 x

105 . Master of Frankfurt, Corpse on

the Passion and Infancy Altarpiece,

130 cm. Museum Catharijnecon-

H is Bier, exterior of the Crucifixion

ea.1510-15. Oil on panel, 202

vent, Utrecht. Photo: Museum

triptych, ea. 1506. Oil on panel, 119

x

202 cm. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Photo © IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

Catharijneconvent, Utrecht. 99. Bernard van Orley,]ob triptych, 1521. Oil on panel, 176

x

344 cm.

x

74 cm. Stadel Museum, Frankfurt

am Main. Photo © U. EdelmannStadel Museum/ARTOTHEK.

Gemaldegalerie der Akademie der

9 2. Hieronymus Bosch, Hermit

Musees royaux des Beaux-Arts,

106. Master of the Morrison

bildenden Kiinste Wien.

Saints triptych, 149os? Oil on panel,

Brussels. Photo© IRPA-KIK,

Triptych, Adam and Eve, exterior of

Brussels.

the Virgin and Child with Angels and

86. Hieronymus. Bosch, H ell(?) and The Flood, ea. 15 r4? Oil on panel,

each panel ea. 69

x

37 cm. Museum

86.5

x

II8 cm. Palazzo Ducale,

Venice. Photo © IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

100. Master of the Magdalene Legend, Virgin and Child triptych,

Boijmans Van Beuningen,

93. Hieronymus Bosch, Epiphany

1491-15 10. Oil on panel, 49 x 64

Rotterdam. Photo: Stichting

triptych, ea. 149 5. Oil on panel, 13 8

cm. Mayer van den Bergh Museum,

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen,

x 144 cm. The Prado, Madrid.

Antwerp. Photo© IRPA-KIK,

Rotterdam.

Photo© IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

Brussels.

87. Hieronymus Bosch, roundels on

94. Hieronymus Bosch, Mass of

101. Jan Mostaert, Christ Carrying

the exterior of Hell (?) and The

Saint Gregory, exterior of the

the Cross, exterior of the Deposition

Flood, ea. 15 r 4? Oil on panel, each

Epiphany triptych, ea. 149 5. Oil on

triptych, ea. 15 10. Oil on panel,

Saints triptych (Morrison Triptych),

ea.1510. Oil on panel, 110.8

x

74.4

cm. Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio. Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey, 1954.5. Photo: Mark S. Tucker, Philadelphia Institute of Art. 107. Master of the Morrison Triptych, Virgin and Child with

panel ea. 69 x 37 cm.Museum

panel, 13 8

Boijmans Van Beuningen,

Madrid. Photo: Scala/Art Resource,

Beaux-Arts, Brussels. Photo©

Rotterdam. Photo: Stichting

N.Y.

IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

95. Hieronymus Bosch, Temptation

102.Joos van Cleve, Saints

IIo.8 x 37.2 cm. Toledo Museum

of Saint Anthony triptych, ea. 1505 .

Christopher and Sebastian, exterior

of Art, Toledo, Ohio. Purchased

88 . Hieronymus Bosch, Christ Child

Oil on panel, 131.5

of the Epiphany triptych, ea. 15 20.

with funds from the Libbey

Walking, reverse of Christ Carrying

Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga,

Oil on panel, ea. 72

the Cross, 149os? Oil on panel, 5 7 x

Lisbon. Photo © IRPA-KIK,

Gemaldegalerie, Staatliche Museen,

3 2 cm. Kunsthistorisches Museum,

Brussels.

Berlin. Photo: Bildarchiv Preussi-

Mark S. Tucker, Philadelphia

scher Kulturbesitz (Jorg P. Anders).

Institute of Art.

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam.

Vienna. Photo © IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

x

66 cm. The Prado,

x

225 cm.

96. Hieronymus Bosch, Arrest of Christ and Christ Carrying the Cross,

of Saint

139.7

x

90.2 cm. Musees royaux des

x

Angels and Saints triptych (Morrison

Triptych), ea.1510. Oil on panel, center 97. 5 x 60.4 cm, each wing

96 cm.

Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey, 1954.5. Photo:

103. Circle of Jan van Score!,

108. Cornelis Engebrechtsz,

Prophet and Moses, exterior of the

triptych of Elisha at the River Jordan H ealing Captain Naaman,

89 . Hieronymus Bosch, Christ

exterior of the Temptation

Carrying the Cross, 1490s? Oil on

Anthony triptych, ea. 1505. Oil on

altarpiece of the Gathering of

panel, 13 1. 5 x 106 cm. Museu

Manna, ea. 153 5. Oil on panel, 69 x

1520s. Oil on panel, 59

46 cm. Museum Catharijneconvent,

Kunsthistorisches Museum,

Utrecht. Photo: Museum

Vienna. Photo: Kunsthistorisches

Catharijneconvent.

Museum, Vienna.

panel, 57

x

32 cm. Kunsthistori-

sches Museum, Vienna. Photo © IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

ILLUSTRATIONS

acional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon. Photo© IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

x

72 cm.

xiii

ro9.Jan van Score!, triptych of

1 15. Lancelot Blondeel, Legend of

12 r. Lucas van Leyden, exterior of

voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp.

Christ's Entry into Jerusalem, ea.

Saints Cosmas and Damian triptych,

the Dance Around the Golden Calf

Photo© IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

15 26. Oil on panel, center 79 x

15 23 . Oil on canvas, 151

triptych, ea. 1529-30. Oil on panel,

x

240 cm.

Church of Saint James, Bruges.

9 1 x 60 cm. Rijksmuseum,

cm. Centraal Museum, Utrecht,

Photo© IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

Amsterdam. Photo: Rijksmuseum,

19 5 1 donation. Photo © Centraal

116. Qyentin Massys, Offering of

146.8 cm, each wing 81.5

x

65.5

Museum, Utrecht.

Joachim and Anne in the Temple and

Amsterdam.

129. Marten de Vos, Saints 1homas and Stephen, exterior of the Doubting 1homas triptych, 15 74. Oil

on panel, 2 2 1 x 176 cm. Koninklijk

122. Jan Gossart, Adam and Eve,

Museum voor Schone Kunsten,

1 ro. Bernard van Orley, Death ofthe

Rejection ofJoachim, exterior of the

exterior of the Malvagna Triptych,

Antwerp. Photo© IRPA-KIK,

Virgin altarpiece, 1szo. Oil on

Saint Anne triptych, 1509. Oil on

ea. 1513.0ilonpanel,45 .1 x 35

Brussels.

panel,center ro5 x 153 cm,each

panel, 2 19. 5

cm. Galleria Nazionale della Sicilia,

lower wing 69

royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels.

Palermo. Photo© IRPA-KIK,

Photo© IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

Brussels.

117. Joachim Patinir,Anna Selbdritt

123.Jan Gossart, Malvagna

Musees royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels. Photo© IRPA-KIK,

wing 3 6

x

x

23 cm, each upper

2 1 cm. Musee de

!'Assistance Publique, Brussels. Photo© IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

x

183 cm. Musees

and Saint Sebald, exterior of the

Triptych, ea. r 5 13. Oil on panel,

11 r.Jan Provost, triptych of the

Saint Jerome triptych, ea. 15 18. Oil

45.5

Virgin and Child with Saints John the

on panel, 120.7

Evangelist and Mary Magdalene, ea.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New

x

71.2 cm. The

1505-25. Oil on panel, center 41 x

York, Fletcher Fund, 1936. Image©

31 cm, each wing 52 x 15 cm.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art/

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (on loan

Art Resource, N .Y.

to the Mauritshuis, The Hague). Photo: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

x

70 cm. Galleria Nazionale

della Sicilia, Palermo. Photo © IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

13 1. Peter Paul Rubens, Lamentation triptych (Michielsen Triptych),

cm. Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp. Photo

11 8. Joachim Patinir, Landscape with

1559-60. Oil on panel, 218 x 132

© IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

Brussels. Photo© IRPA-KIK,

Saints triptych, ea.1518. Oil on

Madrid. Photo: Erich Lessing/ Art

Brussels.

panel, 52 x 78 cm. Staatliche

Resource, N .Y.

12 5. Maerten van Heemskerck,

13 2. Peter Paul Rubens, Christ and 1he Virgin and Child, exterior of the Lamentation triptych (Michielsen

Triptych), ea. 16 17. Oil on panel,

119. Adriaen Isenbrant, Nativity

Entombment triptych, 1559-60. Oil

13 6 x 84 cm. Koninklijk Museum

triptych, after 1sz r. Oil on panel,

on panel, 2 18 x 2 So cm. Musees

voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp. Photo© IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

113 . Cornelis Engebrechtsz,

3 r.4 x 5 r. 1 cm (with engaged

royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels.

altarpiece of the Feeding of the Five

frame) . The Metropolitan Museum

Photo© IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

1housand, 1520s. Oil on panel, 115 x

of Art, New York, Frederick C.

166 cm. Destroyed in the

Hewitt Fund, 1913 . Image© The

Flakbunker Friedrichshain in May

Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art

1945, formerly in the Gemiildegal-

Resource, N. Y.

Kulturbesitz/Art Resource, N .Y.

Brussels.

exterior of the Entombment triptych, cm. Musees royaux des Beaux-Arts,

Photo: Bildarchiv Preussischer

84 cm.

ea. 1617. Oil on panel, 138 x 178

Charon's Boat, ea. 15 20-24. Oil on

erie, Staatliche Museen, Berlin.

x

124. Maerten van Heemskerck,

panel, 63.8 x ro2.9 cm. The Prado,

IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

1630s? Oil on panel, 59

Prophets Isaiah andJeremiah,

11 2. Bernard van Orley, Standing

Kunstsammlungen, Kassel. Photo ©

130. Peeter Neeffs the Elder, Interior ofAntwerp Cathedral,

120. Adriaen Isenbrant, Annunciation and Visitation, exterior of the Nativity triptych, after 15 2 r. Oil on

114. Cornelis Engebrechtsz,

panel, 3 r.4 x 25 .4 cm (with engaged

Crucifixion triptych, ea. 15 12-14.

frame). The Metropolitan Museum

Oil on panel, 88.5 x 113 cm.

of Art, New York, Frederick C.

133 . Peter Paul Rubens, Descent

126 . Frans Floris, LastJudgment

from the Cross, 1612-14. Oil on

triptych, 1566. Oil on panel, 273 x

panel, 42 1 x 617 cm. Cathedral of

435 cm. Musees royaux des

Our Lady, Antwerp. Photo ©

Beaux-Arts, Brussels. Photo©

IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

IRPA-KIK, Brussels. 12 7. Frans Floris, Last Judgment,

134. Peter Paul Rubens, Saint Christopher and the Hermit, exterior of

1565. Oil on canvas on wood, 162 x

Descentfrom the Cross, 16ro. Oil on

220 cm. Kunsthistorisches Museum,

panel, 42 1 x 306 cm. Cathedral of

Vienna. Photo: Erich Lessing/ Art

Our Lady, Antwerp. Photo ©

Resource, N.Y.

IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

Aartsbisschoppelijk Museum,

Hewitt Fund, 1913. Image© The

Utrecht. Photo: Museum

Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art

128 . Marten de Vos, Doubting

135. Anton Gunther Gheringh,

Catharijneconvent, Utrecht.

Resource, N.Y.

1homas triptych, 1574. Oil on panel,

Interior of Saint Walburga (detail),

221 x 361 cm. KoninklijkMuseum

1664. Oil on canvas. Saint Paul's Church, Antwerp. Photo © IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

xiv

ILLUSTRATIO N S

13 6. Peter Paul Rubens, Coats of Arms ofNicholas R ockox and Adriana Perez, exterior of the triptych of the I ncredulity of Saint Thomas (Rockox

Triptych), ea. 1612-15. Oil on panel, 145x112 cm. Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp. Photo © IRPA- KIK, Brussels. 13 7. Peter Paul Rubens, H oly Family Under the Apple Tree, exterior of the

Ildefonso Triptych, 1630-32. Oil on panel, 35 1 x 2 18 cm. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. Photo: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, N .Y. 13 8. Peter Paul Rubens, sketch for the Ildefonso Triptych, ea. 1630-31. Oil on canvas, transferred from panel, 5 2 x 83 cm. The State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg. Photo © The State Hermitage Museum (Vladimir Terebenin, L eonard Kheifets, Yuri M olodkovets) . 13 9. Peter Paul Rubens, R esurrection

of Christ triptych (Moretus Triptych), ea.16 11-12. Oil on panel, 138 x 178 cm. Cathedral of Our Lady, Antwerp. Photo © IRPA- KIK, Brussels. 140. Peter Paul Rubens, Two Angels Guarding the Tomb

of Christ, exterior

of the R esurrection of Christ triptych (M oretus Triptych), ea. 16rr- 12 . Oil on panel, 136 x 80 cm . Cathedral of Our Lady, Antwerp. Photo© IRPA-KIK, Brussels.

ILL USTRATIONS

xv

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I remember very distinctly reading Shirley Blum's Early

eliminate some appalling errors in the text (those

Netherlandish Triptychs in 1975 (while taking Bob

that remain, hopefully not too many, are entirely my

Koch's Northern Renaissance course) and thinking that

responsibility). I cannot thank him enough for all the

I would really like to write a book like this. It has taken

effort he put into this book and all the ways he has

some time, but now I have. A critical point along the

supported my research in the past. The late Carol Purtle,

way came in 1996, when I was on a fellowship in

the second reader of my book, also contributed valuable

Cambridge, England. At that time I had mostly com-

suggestions and is very much missed by the community

pleted my book on Netherlandish sculpted altarpieces

of historians of N etherlandish art. Among the many

and was transitioning into a new project on Bosch. My

others who helped me, I would like to express my warm

plan was to work on Augustinian influences on the

thanks to Maryan Ainsworth, Kristin Belkin, George Bisacca, Anthony Cutler, Mathilde van Dijk,Jas Elsner,

Garden

efEarthly Delights, but-perhaps because I was

not making headway on the topic-I became more and

Helen Evans, Reindert Falkenburg, Zirka Filipczak,

more interested in how Bosch used the triptych format.

David Fredrick, Maia Gahtan, Carmen Garrido,

That year I had the opportunity to visit the Prado with

Laura Gelfand,Jeffrey Hamburger,John Hand, Craig

Carmen Garrido and to view the Bosch triptychs there

Harbison, Peter Humfrey, Machtelt Israels,Joseph

both in their opened and closed states. After that I was

Koerner,James Marrow, Thomas Mathews, Mitchell

hooked and decided to expand my work into a full-scale study of the Netherlandish triptych from the fifteenth

Merback, Keith Monley, Natasja Peeters, Miranda Pildes, Bart Ramakers, Bernhard Ridderbos, Kim

through the seventeenth centuries.

Sexton,Jeffrey Chipps Smith, Charles Talbot, Felix

Over the course of my work on this project, I received generous help from many scholars. Chief

xvi

Thiirlemann, Mark Trowbridge, Mark Tucker, Gerrit Verhoeven, Bernard Vermet, William Voelkle, Heidi

among them was Larry Silver, who, as one of the readers

Voskuhl, Paul Williamson and Rembrandt Wolpert.

for Penn State Press, came very close to setting a press

My dear friend Lynda Coon, who knows all things

record for the length of his reader's report: fourteen

about the Middle Ages and about religious studies,

single-spaced pages. These comments kept me busy

unfailingly answered my questions and was always

for at least a year and, more important, helped me

willing to sympathize as I slogged my way through

strengthen the quality of the book enormously and

the writing of this book.

I am also very grateful for the financial support that I received. This included a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities, which gave me

seven-month-old Jonah played in the Exersaucer. Jonah's presence in our family has filled the years that I worked on this book with an immeasurable joy, and I

much-needed time away from the duties of teacher and

am immensely proud of the person he has become. It is

department chair, as well as the mental space necessary to produce a complete- and relatively coherent-ver-

with great pleasure that I can now tell him that, at long last, "his" book is finished.

sion of the manuscript. The University of Arkansas also provided a great deal of financial support, beginning with the funding of my year abroad in Cambridge. In addition, the former dean of the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, Donald Bobbitt, and the former dean of the graduate school, Collis Geren, gave me grants to cover costs of subvention and photo rights; many, many thanks to them both. None of this would have been possible without the support of my family: my parents, Marjorie and Stanley Jacobs, who instilled in me a love of art; my father-inlaw, Arthur Hyman, who for many years now has helped me navigate the rocky shoals of academia; and, above all, my husband,Jeremy Hyman.Jeremy helped me in innumerable ways-be it as an attentive listener to (and frequent critic of) my theories, as an indefatigable bibliographic searcher for references that eluded me, as a gifted translator of Latin and French documents, and as a scarily good editor and proofreader. No scholar could ask for a better partner than Jere my. I especially appreciate his not damaging the Garden of Earthly D elights while holding it closed so I could

examine the outer wings (note: this was done with the full permission and knowledge of the staff of the Prado). This book is dedicated to my son, Jonah Tov Hyman. The time that I spent working on this book largely coincided with my pregnancy and the first dozen years of Jonah's life. I remember falling asleep over a Campin monograph while pregnant; my photo albums confirm that I was still reading that same book while

ACK

OWLEDGMENTS

xvll

INTRODUCTION: THE TRIPTYCH AS

A "PAINTING WITH DOORS"

The pictorial worlds created by fifteenth- and sixteenth-

the inclusion of donors (the latter a plus in this age of

century Netherlandish artists often extended beyond

increasing private patronage). 2 But aside from an almost

one panel to inhabit three separate panels hinged

tacit acceptance that the format was symbolic of the

together, a format that we today call the triptych. Many

Trinity, 3 there has been little sustained assessment of

of the canonical works of Flemish painting-Robert

the role the triptych format might have played in the

Cam pin's Merode Triptych, Rogier van der Weyden's

construction of meaning.

Columba Altarpiece, Hugo van der Goes's Portinari

The best-known book on triptychs, Shirley Blum's

Altarpiece, and Hieronymus Bosch's Garden ofEarthly

Early Netherlandish Triptychs: A Study in Patronage, of

Delights-along with countless other works by anonymous artists, were executed as triptychs rather than as

1969, largely sidestepped questions of meaning. Blum saw the triptych functioning simply as a means of

single-panel works. The popularity of the triptych as a

re-creating experiences previously found in medieval

format for Northern Renaissance painting has made it so familiar that we tend to read through it, as if it were

architecture, that is, as providing a way to take the total

1

thought realm expressed within the architectural and

transparent. To be sure, scholars have noted the practi-

sculptural programs of Gothic cathedrals and condense

cal functions served by the format: how the wings

it onto a multipanel painting-not as carrying its own

protect the center from dust and damage (especially

distinctive meanings. 4 In this way Blum provided a

helpful during transport); how the structure allows for

naturalistic (that is, historically descriptive) explanation

changing imagery (particularly useful in accommodat-

whereby the triptych arose as part of the shift in media

ing changing liturgical purposes); and how the multiplication of panels permits greater narrative elaboration or

in the late Gothic period away from architectural sculpture and toward panel painting. In so doing, she

1

made format a contingent feature,just one of many

Lankheit's interpretation of meaning by arguing that

ways in which this medieval mind-set expressed itself, a

within small-scale triptychs the "subordinating center"

mere happenstance of the changing roles of the differ-

made the center a focus for devotion and contemplative

ent art media rather than something that by its very

prayer. 7 The most sustained study of the meaning of the

nature structured meaning.

triptych format, however, is found in Marius Rimmele's

A more obscure German study, published a decade

book Das Triptychon als Metapher, Korper und Ort:

Semantisierungen eines Bildtriigers. Rimmele's argu-

farmel, did present, in a nascent form, a theory of how

ments- some of which are similar or complementary to

the format contributed to meaning. Lankheit argued

ones I advance in this book-focus on the way in which

that the triptych format was a "pathos formula," analo-

the triptych, with the opening of its wings, structurally

gous to the gestures (studied by Aby Warburg, who

embodies the concepts of epiphany and revelation. 8

coined the term pathosformel) that Renaissance artists

Ultimately, any study of the construction of meaning within the triptych format needs to be grounded on

adopted from ancient art to heighten the expressive force of their works. In particular, Lankheit believed

documentary evidence. Unfortunately, the sources say

that the triptych's emphasis on the center (and on the subordination of the wings)- wl_-iich he referred to as a

very little about how people thought about triptychs.

"subordinating center"-functioned like Warburg's

work that controlled the way in which people at the

gestures: because the "subordinating center" was derived

time comprehended the format-although the sources

from antique triptychs, in which it heightened the grandiosity of cult images of the Roman emperors, this

provide this indirectly, through the terminology used to refer to triptychs. The documents reveal that during the

motif increased affective power and sacred effect when

late Gothic and Renaissance periods triptychs were

5

But they do provide insight into the conceptual frame-

incorporated into Renaissance triptychs. Lankheit's

most commonly designated not by a term reflecting

argument pushed the significance of format into the

their tripartite nature (as in the current locution) but

realm of expressive content, a noteworthy advance,

rather as "paintings with doors." If we use the terminol-

especially compared to the approach of his German

ogy of the times, that of "paintings with dooi:s"- not

predecessor,Jakob Burckhardt, whose 1886 paper

Lankheit's pathosfarmel and "subordinating center"-

"Format und Bild" argued that format simply delimited

as the starting point for an analysis of the triptych, then

6

2

2010

earlier, Klaus Lankheit's 1959 Das Triptychon als Pathos-

the beautiful from the remaining space. Although

a quite new and somewhat unexpected picture of the

Lankheit's work was already out of fashion by the time Blum wrote her book (Blum does not include him in

format and its role in the creation of meaning emerges.

her bibliography), his work has enjoyed a revival oflate:

TERMINOLOGY

two recent German studies were based on his book-

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries there was no

one, Antje Neuner's dissertation on early Netherlandish

specific term for triptych, nor, it seems, was there such a

triptychs, focused on the compositional aspects of the

term in earlier periods when triptychs were in use, be it

"subordinating center," thereby skirting issues of mean-

ancient Rome or medieval Byzantium. 9 Instead, Neth-

ing, but the other, Karl Schade's book, modernized

erlandish triptychs were most frequently denoted in the

OPENING DOORS

documents in the manner of a 1480 record that refers to

silver, opening in the manner of a door" (Un tableau

a L astjudgment by Dieric Bouts as a "small panel with

d'argent dore, ouvrant en fac;:on de porte) .17

its doors of the Judgment" (eenen cleinen Tafelnelkene

Although "door" was the predominant term used to

met synen dueren van den Ordele)-using the Dutch

designate the wings of Netherlandish triptychs, other

term dueren (doors) to designate what we today would

locutions were employed at times. In rare instances the

call the wings. 10 Similarly, a 148 9 inventory of an inn in

actual term "wings" does appear, as in the 15 26 inven-

Leuven lists "in the dining room ... a painting, with

tory of Saint Denis in Troyes, which uses the Latin alae

two doors, standing on the altar there" (In de eetcamere

(wings) in speaking of"a wooden panel, which is closed

... een taefferneel, met

with two wings" (Tabellam ligneam, que duabus alis clauditur). 18 But the term "wing" seems to have come

aldair);

11

2

doren, staende op den outaer

and a r 505 inventory of the house of Cornelis

Haveloes lists "a painted painting of wood with two

into use mainly in the seventeenth century: Karel van

small doors of our beloved Lady" (een geschildert

Mander, writing in 1603-4, for example, refers to the

tavereel van houte met twee doerkens van onser liever

Ghent Altarpiece at one point as having "two wings or

Vrouwen)Y-The equivalent term in Latin documents is

double doors" (twee vleugelen oft dobbel deuren). 19The

januae (doors), as in the contract for the Holy Sacrament

most common alternative to the terminology and

altarpiece commissioned in 15 13 from Jan de Molder by

conceptualization of the wing-as-door, however, was the

the abbey of Averbode (a sculpted, rather than painted, work). 13 Other related Latin terms used in the docu-

designation of the wings as "leaves," using the same

ments to designate the wings of triptychs include valvae

term used for leaves of a book. This appears most often in French documents, which frequently designate wings

(double doors or folding doors) and portae (doors): so,

asfeuilles: for example, a will of 1412 refers to "one large

for example, the 15 04 inventory of the abbey of Clairvaux refers to a "tabula cum portis." 14 French documents

painting, which opens with two leaves, showing the

often use the term huisses or huissieres (doors), as seen in

deux fuellez, figure de la Souffrance Nostre Seigneur); 20

the 1540 contract between the painter Christophe and

and the inventory of Margaret of Austria lists a triptych

the officials of the Church of Saint John the Baptist in Namur, which includes a request that the artist "gild the

by Rogier der Weyden, with wings by Memling, as "a small painting of a Man of Sorrows resting in the arms

frame of the doors of the aforementioned panel as much

of Our Lady, having two leaves in each of which is an

inside as outside" (dorer les bordeur des huysse de ladite table tant pardedens que dehors). 15 This French term is

angel, and [on the] outside [of] the aforementioned leaves is an Annunciation in black and white" (Ung

found also in the r 3 19 payment for "another gilded

petit tableaul d'ung Dieu de pitye estant es bras de

panel, full of relics, opening with two doors" (une autre

Nostre Dame; ayant deux feulletz clans chascun

tavle don~e, plaine de reliques, ouvrant a deus huissieres).16 Some French documents on occasion use a

desquelz y a ung ange et dessus les dits feulletz y a une annunciade de blanc et de noir). 21

related term,porte (door): thus, the 1420 inventory of

suffering of Our Lord" Ugrant tavelet qui se oeuvre

a

The equivalence of "leaves" and "doors" for designat-

the possessions of Philip the Good lists a triptych of

ing the wings is evident in the contract for the altar-

precious materials, described as "a painting of gilded

piece of the abbey of Flines, which speaks of"leaves or

I

TRODUCTION

3

doors" (feulletz ou huissetz). 22 But while the two words

DOORS AND MEANING

can equally serve as references to triptych wings, the

The designation of triptychs as "paintings with doors"

term "leaf" associates the triptych format more closely

exposes important aspects of the conceptualization of

with books, linking the experience of the triptych

the triptych within the period. 26 ln particular, it reveals

conceptually with that of reading and more particularly

that an essential aspect of the triptych for its users and

with the page-turning that necessarily accompanies the

viewers is the way in which its wings function like doors

act of reading. 23 The analogies with page-turning seem

to create boundaries, or thresholds, between the various

to capture particularly well the unfolding of narrative

zones of the triptych-that is, between center and sides

sequences possible within the triptych format. However, to see wings as leaves of a book that are turned is also to

of the opened triptych, and between the outside and

understand wings as things to be moved, that is, opened

documents is replete with references to these thresholds,

and closed-a notion also central to an understanding

using such phrases as "on the one side" and "on the

of wings as doors.

other side" (in de een zyde and in de ander zyde in Dutch)

Only in very rare cases does the terminology used

and "inside" and "outside" (binnen and buyten in Dutch,

for triptychs evoke the three-part character of these

perdedens and pardehors in French). 27 The terminology of

works. The I 3 79 inventory of the possessions of Charles

opening and/ or closing very frequently forms an

V, king of France, refers to "a large painting of three

intrinsic part of the way a triptych is defined or identi-

parts, covered with silver outside and inside, closing, in

fied: for example, one document speaks of a "small

which [there] are several relics inside" (Ungs grans tableaulx de troys pieces, couvers d'argent dehors et

painting, closing with two small doors" (tafelkin, sluutende met twee duerkins), 28 and another, conversely,

dedens, cloans, esquelz sont dedens plusieurs reliques). 24

of"a .. . gilded panel . .. opening with two doors" (une

And the inventory of Charles the Bold mentions "an

... tavle doree ... ouvrant a deus huissieres). 29

altarpiece of embroidery, in three pieces, in which there

4

inside of the closed one. Indeed, the language of the

This language indicates that the addition of wings to

is, in the center piece, the story of the Three Kings

a single panel to form a triptych is more than merely

making an offering, and the other piece has the death of

incidental. Rather, the inclusion of wings reconfigures a

Our Lady, and in the third has in it the story of the

painting into a structure that maps out boundaries

nativity of our Lord" (Une table d'autel de broudure, en

between its different panels and between imagery that

trois pieces, dont il a en la piece du milieu l'istoire des

takes places in different times and spaces, that depicts

trois rois faisant l'offrande, et l'autre piece a le trespasse-

figures on different levels of status (male and female,

ment Nostre Dame, et en la tierce a l'istoire de la

holy and not, or less, holy), and/or that shows different

nativite nostre Sgr). 25 But locutions of this nature are

states of being (statues and living creatures, man and

exceptionally rare in medieval and Renaissance dis-

God). The format thus uses doors to structure imagery

course on the triptych. Instead, the discourse centers

in ways analogous to the role of doors in ritual. Begin-

around the terminology of the door and in so doing

ning with Arnold van Gennep, anthropologists have

associates the triptych with the complex of meanings

recognized that doors are key elements in rites of

surrounding the concept of the door.

passage from one status to another; in these rites of

O P EN I NG D OO R S

of heaven was shut to all by Eve, but by thee, blessed Virgin Mary, it was opened once again'' (Paradisi porta

passage, crossing through the openings marked by the doors, that is, going across the thresholds, is, as Gennep puts it, "to unite oneself with a new world." 30 Indeed, in

per Evam cunctis clausa est, et per beatam Mariam

late medieval and Renaissance northern Europe,

virginem iterum patefacta est). 34 The Dominican liturgy

marriage was one of a number a key rites of passage that often took place at a doorway.31 So, too, the rite of

of the Office of the Virgin evokes this same analogy in the following lines: "Yes you are the Door that leads to

passage from the lay world into the cloistered one also

the King most high. You are the Door sparkling with

centered around the door: in the Benedictine rule, entry into the cloister involved the ritual of pulsans (knock-

light." And the famous Marian hymn ''Ave Maris Stella" calls Mary "happy gate of heaven'' (felix coeli porta). 35 Mary was very strongly associated not just with the

ing), in which a person wishing to enter the monastery and take on a religious life had to knock on the door to the monastery for four or five days-and thereby demonstrate his commitment to the cloistered life-

open doors of paradise but also with their opposite, the closed door, or porta clausa. This association developed out of Saint Ambrose's interpretation of Ezekiel's vision

before being admitted. 32 Moreover, an especially crucial

of the closed door as an Old Testament type for the

passage, that between life and death, was conceived in terms of doorways between different worlds. As is

perpetual virginity of the Virgin: Ambrose wrote that "Mary is the door which was closed and not to be

evident in paintings of the Last J udgment, death

opened"-an image that was perpetuated in later

involved passage through the porta paradisi (the gate, or door, of paradise) or, for the less fortunate, the mouth of

medieval authors, such as Honorius of Autun, who included Ezekiel's porta clausa in his compendium of Old Testament prefigurations of the Annunciation.36

hell; the latter possibility confirms Mary Douglas's observations on how, within ritual, orifices of the human body often mark boundaries in a manner similar to doorposts.

33

But the concept of the door carried additional, more specific meanings and associations within late medieval religious culture-all of which had implications for the meaning structure of the triptych. Most significant, the

This imagery was also popularized in medieval Annun ciation plays, notably E~st Anglian Annunciation plays, which were closely related to their Netherlandish counterparts; these English plays-in a rather direct reference to Ezekiel's porta clausa-often include a scene in which Joseph, returning to the house after the Annunciation, has to knock three times before gaining

central figures of medieval Catholicism (and frequent subjects of early Netherlandish triptychs), Mary and Christ, were closely associated with the notion of the

entrance.37 Thus during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the door was a very well entrenched Marian

door. Among the many symbols and appellations for the Virgin Mary, one of the most common was the porta

dual possibilities of opening and shutting were espe-

symbol-and a particularly potent one-because its

paradisi. This designation drew on the theological

cially suited to the paradoxical, liminal position of Mary as both mother and virgin, both human and the bearer

notion that Mary opened the gate to heaven, which had

of God. Indeed, in the Middle Ages such concepts were

been shut by Eve-an idea expressed in the office of Terce in the Hours of the Virgin with the line "The gate

very literally conveyed in the so-called Vierge ouvrante, a

INTRODUCTION

type of Marian statue in which the body of the Virgin is

5

constituted by doors that open up to reveal an image of 38

the Trinity within. The Vierge ouvrante statues express

openen: doe wert ghebroken die verherdicheyt ons

a full nexus of ideas about the Virgin-the Virgin as an

ghemoets, ende die besloten duysterheyt daer-van

open door to salvation and as a closed door of inviolate

ghedaen). 43 In this way the text continues the Augustin-

purity-as well as ideas about the door and the body as

ian association of the piercing of Christ's side with the

markers of crucial boundaries.

opening of the doors of salvation but also relates the

Christ too, during the Middle Ages, was conceived as a door. This notion-which reflects the liminal nature

image of Christ-as-door to the spiritual state of the inner soul. Indeed, in late medieval spirituality, the spiritual

of Christ's body as both dead and alive, human and divine, open and closed39-has direct roots in Scripture.

relation between the worshipper and Christ was often

In John 10:9, Christ, as part of a series of self-defini-

seen through the metaphor of the door. 44 Much of this

tions that dominate this Gospel, says, "I am the gate.

imagery drew on Song of Songs 6, in which the Bride

40

Anyone who enters through me will be safe." The concept of Christ-as-door was elaborated in a sermon

hears her beloved knocking and opens the bolt of the door to the beloved. Additional imagery derives from

by Augustine, who stated that Christ was the door and

Revelation 3:20, "Look, I am standing at the door,

that this door was opened when his side was pierced by

knocking. If one of you hears me calling and opens the

the lance. 41 In this way Augustine associated the

door, I will come in to share his meal, side by side with

opening of the door to salvation with the opening of the

him."These textual sources formed a basis for religious

boundaries of Christ's body. These concepts had continued resonance in the Lowlands well into the sixteenth

practices, particularly in female spirituality (examined in

century. A sixteenth-century Flemish devotional text,

Christ was conceived as opening the doors of one's

Den tempel onser sielen, describes the soul as a temple

heart to Christ when he comes knocking; thus the

that was broken by original sin and had to be remade

codex with the legend of Hedwig of Silesia, a thir-

(through the Incarnation of Christ): describing the

teenth-century saint, states that "she continually awaited

remade (now redeemed) temple of the soul, the text

the coming of the Consoler, so that on his arrival and

quotes God as saying, "I shall open the door, and the

knocking at the gate of her heart, she could quickly open the door." 45

gates shall not be closed again. I shall show you hidden treasures, and hidden secrets shall I reveal in you" (le sal die dore opluycken, ende die poorten en sullen niet weder ghesloten werden. le sal di toonen verborghen

6

heylige side liet doorsteken, ende zijn godlike hert

detail by Jeffrey Hamburger), in which devotion to

The notion of the door, of course, had resonance for an understanding not only of Mary and Christ but also of the church building itself. The doors of medieval

schatten, ende verborghen heymelicheden sal ic in di

churches were the focus of much decoration and often

openbaren). 42 The text goes on to say, "This door or gate

bore inscriptions marking their significance; these

he [Christ] opened when he let us pierce his holy side,

inscriptions frequently drew on the imagery of Jacob's

and let us open his godly heart, then the hardness of our

vision of a ladder into the skies, repeating Jacob's

heart was broken and the closed darkness removed from

exclamation, "This is the house of God and the gate to

it" (Deze dore oft poorte dede hi op, doe hi ons zijn

heaven" (Haec est domus dei et porta caeli). 46 In this

O P EN I NG D OO R S

church divided and marked by thresholds, but also the

way the doorway of the church was literally as well as figuratively inscribed as the entrance into another world, not the mundane, profane one, but the heavenly, para-

church was filled with furniture and objects that themselves marked thresholds with their own sets of doors.

disial realm of God. Of course, all of this was consonant

Church sacristies usually contained storage cabinets for

with the interpretation of the church door as symbolic of Christ, as in Durandus ofMende's thirteenth-centu-

vestments and Mass implements-and sometimes relic cabinets- which had real doors that could be closed

ry treatise on the symbolism of the church, since

and locked to protect the precious and sacred contents.s3

Christ's redemption was the means by which mankind was finally allowed entrance into heaven in the after-

So, too, church altars and treasuries accommodated wooden winged altarpieces, metal reliquary triptychs,

math of the Fall.47 The significance of the door of the

and sculptures within tabernacles, whose doors protect-

church is also manifest in consecration rituals for new churches: as part of this rite, the bishop would circle the exterior of the church three times, sprinkling it with

ed against thieves and dust, even as they provided fields

holy water, and after each circuit would strike the door with his crosier and recite from Psalm 23, "Lift up your gates, ye princes, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in." 48 Byzan-

for pictorial or sculptural imagery. Like the shutters of altarpieces, doors also protected the pipe organs in churches.s4 Even manuscripts had doors of a sort, for the covers of books were equivalent to doors: they had to be opened to gain access to the text and were locked with clasps when the reading was concluded.ss

the first through the outer portal into the church

Of course, the door also defined limits within domestic as well as religious space. Entrances into the home, and private spaces within the home, were

interior, the second through the chancel screen (or

marked by doors and thresholds to be crossed. Objects

tine Eucharistic rites are also closely bound up with doors, with ritual activities centering on two entrances,

49

templon) into the altar area. The motif and concept of the door reverberated

of special value were locked and enclosed within cabinets with doors (to be discussed more fully below),

throughout the whole church structure, not just its

which were common and important furnishings in

entrance. Like its predecessor, the Jewish temple, the medieval church was structured less around space for its own sake and more around the control of space through

medieval homes. Major public spectacles were also often located within the framework of the door: for example, mystery plays and other dramatic productions could be

attention to thresholds and internal divisions.so One key

staged within arched frameworks, which sometimes were closed off with curtains or triptychlike doors.s6 Many of the tableaux vivants set up for the joyous entry

division, between the space of the clerics and that of the laity, was created through the regular use of choir screens (with doors) in medieval churches.s1 Further

of Charles V into Bruges in r5 r5 were situated within

divisions could be established by various other furnish ings, such as the choir tapestries, which could enclose

sets outfitted with doors, which had inscriptions on their outsides and opened to display painted images on

the choir on feast days and separate the space of the

their insides.s7 The opening of these doors revealed

canons from that of the laity, in the nave, and the bishop, at the altar.s2 Not only were the spaces of the

living actors in staged scenes designed to convey specific

I N TR ODUC TI ON

political messages.

7

All of this indicates that to call triptychs "paintings with doors"was to vest upon them a variety of associations from a variety of contexts-all of which were

Freisung. 59 Other documentation suggests, albeit indirectly, that Rogier van der Weyden's Beaune Altar-

replete with meaning. Putting doors onto paintings-

piece was opened specifically on feast days. According

and conceiving of artworks as "paintings with doors"-

to this account, on feast days a parement showing an Annunciation was placed on the main altar below the

thus was an intrinsically value-laden activity. The response oflate medieval viewers of "paintings with doors" would have incorporated the same sort of

altarpiece; the addition of the parement is probably a

awareness (conscious or subconscious) of the role of the door that we ourselves would experience if a stranger

sense to have displayed a parement of the Annunciation beneath a closed altarpiece that also depicted the

came knocking at the door of our house in the middle

Annunciation. 60 Whether these openings occurred prior

of the night. One notion seemingly not contained within the concept of the triptych as a "painting with doors" is that of the Trinity. Although allusions to the

to the ritual or as part of the ritual is not clear. But John Knox's r 5 5 9 description of an iconoclastic act in the Parish Church of the Holy Cross of Saint John the

Trinity are often considered basic to its three-part

Baptist (Saint Johnston, present-day Perth, Scotland),

format, the conceptualization of the triptych as a painting with doors, that is, as one unit with some

tells of a congregation that was moved to destroy an altarpiece on the high altar after it was opened up

accessories, tends to deny or at least ignore the format's

by a priest who was going to say Mass- a story that

triune nature.

suggests that at least in this instance the opening of the altarpiece was a public act and thus likely part of

OPENINGS AND CLOSINGS OF THE DOORS

liturgical ceremony.61

Above all, viewers of "paintings with doors" would have

sign that the altarpiece was opened, since it makes little

The smaller triptychs in a church, whether on altars

noted whether the doors were closed or open. Most Netherlandish triptychs allowed for the folding of the

or over tombs, could also be opened and closed in relation to the Mass. Thus, for example, a 1570 docu-

wings, which had imagery painted on their reverses,

ment provides money for the maintenance of a candle in front of the epitaph of Roelants van Wynde, which

giving the triptych two distinct views, interior and exterior. In church contexts the opening and closing of the triptych-though not well documented-was

8

of churches in Nuremberg, Lubeck, Tergernsee, and

was located in the chapel of the Holy Trinity of Saint Peter's in Leuven; the act also states that "the candle-

closely linked to the celebration of the Mass: thus, for example, an Ordinary from the cathedral of Laon (twelfth to thirteenth century) states that the altarpiece

lighter shall also be responsible every Friday, at the time that they shall have the Mass of the Holy Cross in the

should be opened on feast days, except that of the

painting and, the aforementioned Mass being finished, to shut and close [it)" (sal de ontsteker oyck schuldich

aforementioned church, to open the aforementioned

Annunciation during Lent. 58 Similarly, the instructions to the sexton of the Oude Kerk in Delft ( r 53 9) provide

zyn alle vrydagen, ten tyde als men de misse van den

lists of the festivals when the high altarpiece should be

heyligen Cruyse inder voers. kercke doen sal, tvoersc.

opened and half-opened, as do instructions for sextons

tafereel open te doen ende voers. misse gedaen zynde,

OPE N I N G DOOR S

wederom toedoen ende sluyten). 62 So, too, the 1582 testament of Marthe Oliviers states: "Likewise [she]

devotion. 64 Moreover, in domestic settings the time and

desired to be placed above her and her husband's tomb

occasion of the opening of triptychs were based solely on the devotional activities-and/or the interior-

her painting of our beloved Lady, standing on the sun,

decorating proclivities-of the owner. Certainly the

[with] Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist on the doors, with a metal candlestick

triptych that, according to a 1489 document, stood in the dining room of an inn in Leuven would have been

standing in front of it, whereupon [on] all four feast

opened and closed in accordance with a less rigid

days one shall place a wax candle of one-half pound and [shall] light the same candle during the High Mass [on] all Sundays and feast days; for the candle to be lit and

schedule or-if the proprietors were overtaxed or inattentive-could have been displayed permanently in an open (or closed) position. 65

[for] the painting to be open and shut ... the sexton of the church every year will receive six pennies" (Item, begeert boven haer en haers mans sepulture gestelt te

the opening of triptychs admits of degrees. Wings do not have to be opened flush with the center but can be

worden haet taeffereel van onser liever Vrouwen, in de

opened only partially, so that they end up placed at an

son staende, op de doere Sint Jan Baptista en Sint Jan Evangelista met eenen metalen candelaer, daer voer

angle to the center. Although no firm documentary evidence has been found, 66 some visual evidence sup-

staende, waerop men, alle vier hoechtyden sal setten een

ports the claim that triptychs, like diptychs, were

wasse kersse, van eenen halven ponde, en de selve kersse ontsteken, onder die hoemis, alle sondage en hoochtyt-

sometimes displayed with angled wings. 67 Images of triptychs within paintings often show an angled place-

dagen, voer welcke kersse te ontsteken, en het taeffereel

ment of the wings, 68 and certain triptychs themselves

The situation is further complicated by the fact that

op en toe te doen ... die koster van de kercke jaerlycx

supply evidence of angled display. In some cases,

hebben sal ses stuyvers). 63 Although this document is not fully explicit on this point, the clear implication is

physical evidence point_s to such a display configuration; in others, formal elements within the triptych imply an

that the painting was open and shut in conjunction with

angled display of the wings, such as a system of perspec-

the lighting of the candle, which, in turn, was done in conjunction with the celebration of the Mass. Thus, within a church, some triptychs, whether

tive that "works" only when the wings are placed at a particular angle or a variation in the figure scale between center and wings that appears to make better

functioning as altarpieces or as epitaphs, were opened in relation to liturgical ceremony. But the practices of opening and closing are likely to have been more

sense when the wings are placed at an angle. 69 Specific examples are considered later in this book. The opening and closing of the triptych-while it

complicated than the documentary evidence suggests.

might vary in circumstance and degree-establishes a

Qyite likely altarpieces were opened outside ofliturgical celebration also-especially those altarpieces on second-

hierarchy in the format. Because the inside at many times is hidden and protected by the closed wings, it

ary altars and in private chapels, which could have been

assumes a higher status vis-a-vis the exterior, often

opened more often at the discretion of the viewer and in response to the needs of personal, as opposed to ritual,

(at least in religious works) a more sanctified, holy character.70 In addition, the opened view itself has a

I N TROD UCT I ON

9

hierarchical structure, with the larger central section,

between the artwork and the audience-in ways that

partitioned off from the wings, standing as the focal point of the work. In this way the "painting with doors"

differed significantly from single-panel paintings.

is indeed marked by a "subordinating center," as

INTERNAL EVIDENCE

Lankheit observed.71 But equally important, the "paint-

While the language of the documents speaks to the ways in which the audience and consumers of art

ing with doors" is a structure that establishes thresholds between exterior and interior, as well as between center and sides. Thus, part of the "essence" of the triptych is

tychs indicates that the artists too conceptualized the

to raise questions about the relations between the representations on either side of each threshold and

triptych as a "painting with doors." A telling example appears in one of the best-known Netherlandish

about how open or closed these thresholds are. These

triptychs, the Merode Triptych (color plate r) , whose

questions, and the answers provided within the trip-

date of around 142 5 places it among the earliest known Netherlandish painted examples; its panels depict the Annunciation in the center, the donors at the left, and

tychs, have important implications for the meaning of the works. But the questions (and answers) also have implications for how the viewer engages with triptychs. Paul Philippot has argued that the experience of viewing

Joseph in his workshop at the right. 74 In this work, the frames between the left and center panels separate the representation of an opened door on the one side

works with thresholds to cross heightens the viewer's

(behind which the donors appear) and a barely visible

identification with the imaginary reality created within the work. 72 And indeed it does seem that the necessity,

doorframe shown within the center panel, to the left of the angel Gabriel. A door thus is depicted within that part of the triptych called the "door," and-thanks

imposed by the format, for the viewer to understand how the various zones of the triptych relate to one another makes the experience of viewing a triptych particularly engaging. The level of viewer engagement

as well to the doorframe depicted in the center-a threshold is represented between center and wing. 75

also was heightened by the mutability of the form: since

suggests that the triptych is self-consciously commenting on its own nature. 76 Indeed, the conceit of the opened door is reiterated in the form of other hinged

triptychs could not only be opened or closed but also be opened to different angles, they provided a wide variety of views. Moreover, at times they even could offer the viewer a kinetic (or, for the actual manipulators of the artworks, haptic) experience of the very process of shifting from one view to another. 73 The format of a "painting with doors" thereby allowed fully pictorial works to take on a characteristic of architecture and

10

understood triptychs, visual evidence within the trip-

Such a confluence between imagery and format

panels shown throughout the triptych in various stages of opening or closing. Most notably, the left panel has a second door-this one held open by a man (whose identity is a matter of iconographic controversy)-

sculpture and occupy real space (not just create illusion-

which forms a threshold between the city in the background and the garden where the donors kneel. But also, the center and right panels have a number of

istic space). In so doing, the triptych format could

window shutters, which look like minidoors, flapping

address and manipulate another threshold-that

open and closed in various ways. For Michael Ann

OPENING DOORS

Holly, these visualizations of the theme of opening and closing stand as metaphors for the process of interpretation itself7 7 But the depictions of openings and closings also allude to the openings and closings of the triptych. The doors and windows shown in the Merode Triptych thereby serve as meta-images of the format wherein they appear. The door in front of the donor (in the left panel) has been opened with keys, which still hang out of the keyhole (fig. r) and form an additional indication that what the Merode Triptych is about (at least in part) is the triptych format itself. Although largely ignored within the plethora of symbolic decodings of this work, the keys, as Holly has noted, are very prominently displayed, and the artist renders them with special attention: indeed, the keys are among very few objects in the scene that cast shadows. 78 These keys raise many questions, not just those about the possibilities of interpretation noted by Holly, but also more basic questions about the story line of the work. Whose keys are these, and who has opened the door? Did the donor insert the keys into a keyhole on the left side of the door (as he faced it), open the door, and then swing it around so that the keys now face the center panel? Or did the angel or the Virgin open the door from the inside and push it slightly ajar to allow the donor a peek into the inner sanctum? And why were the keys left in the door? The artists who created this workwhich likely was a collaborative product from the shop of Robert Cam pin-leave these questions unanswered, perhaps deliberately. But as shown, the keys

The real reason why the keys hang out of the door

FIG . 1

emphasize the presence of the door and more specifically the process of opening the door to create an open

in clear view of the viewer may be less important to the story line of the work than to the need to show

(color plate 1), detail, with keys.

threshold between wing and center; they also have

the audience how the image of a recently unlocked

temporal implications, suggesting that the Virgin's chamber only just previously had been locked up tight.

I NT ROD UC TIO N

Robert Campin, Merode Triptych

door on the left panel is a metonym for the triptych 79

format itself.

11

FIG. 2

The self-consciousness about format seen in the

1552. Oil on panel , 60 x 101.5

Merode Triptych is similar to that in a later work, Pieter Aertsen's r 5 5 2 Christ in the House ofMary and Martha

within the painting, where Christ, Mary, and Martha are situated. The work thus can be seen as a "split painting," in which trompe l'oeil still life is set against

cm. Kunsthistorisches Museum ,

(fig. 2), a painting that to a significant degree is about

pictorialized religious imagery. 81 The two areas coexist

Vienna.

painting. 80 The foreground of this work is dominated by life-sized still-life elements-mainly kitchen utensils, flowers, and food-while the background shows an

in marked contrast, both in terms of style- the Flemish illusionism of the still life versus the Italianate rendering of the religious scene- and iconography, kitchen

opening into the next room, framed as if a painting

items versus religious history. As analyzed by Victor

Pieter Aertsen, Christ in the House of Mary and Martha,

12

O P EN I NG DOO R S

Stoichita, the background can be seen as the text (translated into a painting), which is sacred and ren-

door participates in the commentary on the nature of

dered through methods of traditional painting, whereas

the triptych. In these two works, then, the representations of

the foreground is outside the text, a nonsacred world

doors express the artists' self-awareness of what their art

that comments on the text, encouraging the spectator to look beyond the imagery of terrestrial food to understand its true meaning, the spiritual food offered

is doing. Typically, this sort of artistic self-consciousness is associated more with sixteenth-century than with fifteenth-century Northern art. 84 But Campin's early

by Christ. 82 In making this commentary, the foreground projects itself right out of the painting into the real world in front of the painting, that is, the kitchen where

fifteenth-century Merode Triptych shows a clear awareness of the analogy between the door depicted in the scene (a door of a house) and the door structure of

such a work could have hung. The work thus involves questions about reality versus fiction, particularly about where the boundaries between them are to be found,

the triptych-along with a specific and self-conscious desire to manifest this awareness. 85 Indeed, the deliberate inclusion of doors, which form literal illustrations of

and hence becomes a discourse on the nature of representation itself One of the significant motifs in this discourse is

the thresholds spanned, seems as appropriate for the Merode Triptych as for Aertsen's Christ in the House of Mary and Martha, since both works stand at the

reminiscent of the imagery seen in the left wing of

threshold of new directions in art, the early Netherland-

the Merode Triptych, a cupboard door with keys in the lock, which swings open toward the viewer in the right foreground of Aertsen's work. Stoichita empha-

ish triptych and the early modern genre scene. The analogies between the opened doors of Aertsen's and Campin's paintings are indicative of the ways in

sized the role of this door in aggressively encroaching

which the split image of the later sixteenth century

on the spectator's space, helping to bring the foreground, in some sense, out of the painting. But within the context of a painting that is clearly concerned

re-creates aspects of the _triptych within a single panel. In Aertsen's panel, as in the Merode Triptych, there are splits and separations between zones of reality (that is, between

with representational theory, the door also functions as an overt introduction of the viewer into the fictional world of the painting, perhaps even alluding to locked

zones of sacred history and of the here and now)-although those in the Merode Triptych are created by literal splits between the panels, whereas those in Aert-

cabinets or rooms within which sixteenth-century paintings were often housed. The dangling keys left in the lock provide an allusion to the artist, whose

sen's painting are embedded within the single pictorial surface. But neither work is purely about separation, since they also use the door to forge a connection between

hand is missing (or at least not represented holding

zones, in one case linking the space of the spectator to

the keys) but is present in the work, and whose art unlocks and opens up the world of representation to

that of the painting (Aertsen) and in the other linking the space of the donor to that of the object of his prayers

the viewer. Aertsen's door thus participates in the

(Campin). The unlocked doors of these two works thus

commentary on the nature of painting, just as Cam pin's

say a lot about how these works convey meaning.

83

IN T RODUCT I ON

13

METHODOLOGY

implications of the treatment of format for meaning-

This book focuses on demonstrating how the triptych format structures and generates meaning. My goal is not

results in new ways of interpreting and understanding these complex artworks. These new modes of interpreta-

to argue that the format creates only one meaning, but

tion are not intended to supplant traditional icono-

rather to examine how each triptych manipulates the

graphic studies but rather to expand them beyond the

format-by structuring the thresholds inherent in it-to create different meanings. The meanings created within

limitations of purely symbolic interpretation. My approach builds upon a general scholarly interest in the

triptychs are in no way exclusive to the triptych format, for single-panel works can (and do) construct and manipulate thresholds much as triptychs do. 86 However,

margins and framing of art (as, for example, in Michael Camille's Image on the Edge: The Margins ofMedieval Art), and its analysis of spatial passageways comple-

unlike the single-panel format, the triptych format-or,

ments Alfred Acres's study of temporal passageways in

more precisely, the format of a "painting with doors"requires the artist to deal with multiple boundaries in constructing meaning within the work. Hence questions

Netherlandish painting. 90 The reinterpretations of Netherlandish triptychs in this book thus are often quite compatible and even cotenable with those pro-

about relations across thresholds, while optional in the

posed by earlier scholars. But, I believe, once one

formulation of a single-panel work, are essential and inescapable parts of the meaning structure of triptychs.

reconceptualizes Netherlandish triptychs as "paintings with doors," these artworks never quite look the same or

The book's attention to the role of format in the construction of meaning places its methodology outside the paradigm of "disguised symbolism." Since the concept of disguised symbolism was first introduced by

This book deals primarily with painted triptychs of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Within the book I classify works as triptychs only if they (1) are composed

Erwin Panofsky in his 1934 article on Van Eyck's Arno!fini Wedding, iconographic studies of early Netherlandish painting have often been dominated by an

of separate panels, whose divisions are visible and

obsession with decoding symbols. 87 And even after

Lankheit's term, a "subordinating center" (that is, in some way mark off the inside center as the most important zone within the total structure and concomitantly

several decades of criticism of the notion of disguised symbolism largely eliminated the decoding mania, scholars of Northern Renaissance art still tend to cast

thereby establish thresholds between the various sections, and (2) have a stressed center, or, to use

make the other parts of the work subordinate to it).

questions of meaning in terms of the opposition between symbol and reality. 88 This book argues that Netherlandish paintings can communicate meaning in

Under this definition, what counts as a triptych here is not only the standard type, with hinged, folding wings, but other variants as well. Triptychs with fixed (that is,

other, nonsymbolic ways and that format is one of these.

nonfolding) wings still count, since they, though lacking

For this reason, the book is as much about how art means as it is about what art means. 89

any interior/exterior thresholds, nevertheless have thresholds and a stressed center within their fixed, open

The book's treatment of Netherlandish triptychs as "paintings with doors"-and its unpacking of the

14

mean the same as they seemed to before.

state. 91 So, too, frieze-type triptychs, which have equal-sized panels (rather than the double-sized center

OPENING D OORS

of the standard type), also have thresholds and a stressed

refer to the panels of a diptych using the same terminology used for triptychs, that is, "doors" or "leaves."95 But

center, even if the center is stressed only by its centrality and not by increased size. In addition, triptychs- either

diptychs lack a subordinating center, and hence the

with fixed or folding wings- that have one scene

dynamic governing the doors of the diptych differs

painted continuously across all the panels still meet my definition of a triptych, since the separation of the

somewhat from that governing the doors of the triptych. The specific dynamic of the diptych, of late, has

panels in and of itself provides thresholds and a resul-

received significant attention elsewhere. 96

tant emphasis on the center. My definition of triptychs also includes works typically called polyptychs, which are made up of

This book surveys Netherlandish painted triptychs from the early fifteenth century through the late sixteenth century, ending with a coda on the triptych in the

more than three panels. Although they have more panels than the standard triptych, most of these are structured as a series of thresholds with a subordinating

age of Rubens. As such, it offers a more comprehensive study of the format than can be found elsewhere. The chapters are focused on individual painters or groups of

center and folding wings, just like regular triptychs.

painters (arranged chronologically) and treat the mate-

Indeed, the documents make no distinctions between triptych and polyptych, calling both panels (or paint-

rial both thematically and via detailed case studies. The case studies examine individual triptychs from a variety

ings) with doors.92 For these reasons, this book treats

of points of view, considering their formal elements,

"polyptychs"with thresholds and stressed centers, such as Jan van Eyck's Ghent Altarpiece; however, a quadriptych, which has thresholds but no stressed center, would

iconography, physical structure, patronage, and historical context; but above all, the analysis centers on the ways in which the thresholds of the triptych are treated and on

not qualify for inclusion here. 93 Triptychs or polyptychs

the impact of this treatment on the meaning of the work.

that combine sculpted centers with painted wings also satisfy my definition of "triptych" and indeed meet the

First, however, I would like to provide some background regarding the functions and sources of the early Nether-

criteria particularly well in that the shift in media heightens the sense of threshold and especially the differing statuses between the divided zones (with the

landish triptych.

sculpture of the center dominating over the wings to a

TRIPTYCH

degree not possible in single-media works). However, since the production of sculpted altarpieces was a

In the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, triptychs were experienced in a variety of ways because of their multiplicity of functions. Modern scholars typically associate

complex industry that functioned fairly separately from that of painted works-and has been examined in my

THE FUNCTIONS OF THE EARLY NETHER L AND I SH

triptychs with the function of altarpiece, that is, with

here insofar as they relate to pictorial developments.

decorating the altars in churches and thereby forming a backdrop to the celebration of the Mass, as was the case

So, too, diptychs are considered only peripherally here.

for triptychs such as Bouts's Holy Sacrament altarpiece

To be sure, diptychs have thresholds in that they consist of two panels hinged together, and many documents

(referred to in a r 464 contract simply as a "panel" [tafele]) and Jan van Scorel's Crucifixion triptych for the

94

previous book -sculpted works will only be considered

I N TR O D UC TIO N

15

New Church in Delft (referred to in a 1550 contract as 97

a "high altarpiece" [hoogh autaer-stuck]). A 1390 document records a payment from the duke of Bur-

Evangelista) .100 The 1 5o 5 inventory of the house of Cornelis Haveloes lists "a painted painting [made] of

gundy to Jean de Beaumetz "for a painting with two

wood with two small doors [depicting] our beloved

halves closing over, which has in the middle the Coro-

Lady and painted therein is the aforementioned late Cornelis Haveloes, which he wished to be set in the

nation of Our Lady and on one of the sides the Annunciation and on the other the Visitation of Our Lady and

place near [where he] is buried" (een geschildert tavereel

Saint Elizabeth, and are all gilded with fine gold-

van houte met twee doerkens van onser liever Vrouwen,

which paintings my lord has had placed on the altar of

ende