15-Bruges
Detail of Altarpiece of John the Evangelist and John the Baptist 1479
Hans Memling, Mainz, Germany 1430 - Bruges, Belgium
Memling was commissioned to paint this great triptych by the monastic community of the St. John’s Hospital. On the outside of the wings are the portraits of the donors – two monks and two nuns who held important offices in the foundation and who paid for this work. Depicted in the center panes is a ‘Sacra conversazion.’ A gathering of saints and angels around the Virgin and Child. Both St. Barbara, who sits just in front of her town, and St. Catherine, identified by her wheel are closely associated with the monastic life. Flanking the virgin are the hospital’s patron saints; John the Baptist with the Lamb and John the Evangelist with the chalice. In the background, glimpse between the columns, is a passing reference to the altarpiece’s commissioners. You can see the monks exercising a particularly profitable privilege-sampling of wine-granted them by the city of Bruges. The barrels are lined up beneath the great wooden crane on the still-existing wharf known as the Kraanplaats. The wings show crucial moments in the lives of the patron saints. On the left wing is the beheading of John the Baptist: an execution places the Baptist’s severed head on the charger Salome holds. The right wing depicts the revelation to John the Evangelist on Patmos: he describes his vision of the End of Times, which includes the appearance of God, the Wheel of the Elders and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
At Memling Mseum
15-Bruges
Detail of Altarpiece of John the Evangelist and John the Baptist 1479
Hans Memling, Mainz, Germany 1430 - Bruges, Belgium
Memling was commissioned to paint this great triptych by the monastic community of the St. John’s Hospital. On the outside of the wings are the portraits of the donors – two monks and two nuns who held important offices in the foundation and who paid for this work. Depicted in the center panes is a ‘Sacra conversazion.’ A gathering of saints and angels around the Virgin and Child. Both St. Barbara, who sits just in front of her town, and St. Catherine, identified by her wheel are closely associated with the monastic life. Flanking the virgin are the hospital’s patron saints; John the Baptist with the Lamb and John the Evangelist with the chalice. In the background, glimpse between the columns, is a passing reference to the altarpiece’s commissioners. You can see the monks exercising a particularly profitable privilege-sampling of wine-granted them by the city of Bruges. The barrels are lined up beneath the great wooden crane on the still-existing wharf known as the Kraanplaats. The wings show crucial moments in the lives of the patron saints. On the left wing is the beheading of John the Baptist: an execution places the Baptist’s severed head on the charger Salome holds. The right wing depicts the revelation to John the Evangelist on Patmos: he describes his vision of the End of Times, which includes the appearance of God, the Wheel of the Elders and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
At Memling Mseum