Leseprobe

57 The unusually small triptych is evocative of an intricate piece of goldsmithing and was made as an object of private devotion for one of Jan van Eyck’s contemporaries. The view is of a church interior resembling a Romanesque basilica. Virgin and Christ Child are enthroned on the central panel, in the exact place where the lay altar would have been in a medieval church, facing the donor, supplicant in prayer on the inner panel on the left. In keeping with Christian colour symbolism, Mary’s delicate figure is clad in a blue gown under a generous red cloak of cascading drapery. The right panel shows Saint Catherine of Alexandria with her identifying attributes: a crown, book, sword, and wheel. Rather tightly squeezed into the left aisle are the donor, dressed in the fashions of the court of the Burgundian Netherlands, and the Archangel Michael. With the shutters closed, the outer faces of the panels show the Virgin Mary and the Archangel Gabriel in an Annunciation scene, painted in grisaille to give the illusion of ivory or alabaster sculpture. The composition of the triptych follows a complex geometric design that also includes the frames, painted and decorated with Latin inscriptions by Van Eyck himself. The texts used for the inscriptions on the altarpiece can be traced back to liturgical use in the church of Saint Donatian in Bruges during the 15th century – a church with which Jan van Eyck, who had resided in the city since 1432, had strong ties.  |  un