Moreel Triptych

The Moreel Triptych (or the Saint Christopher Altarpiece) is the name given to a 1484 panel painting by the Early Netherlandish painter Hans Memling (d. 1494).

Memling earlier portrayed the couple in 1482, with a pair of panel portraits now in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium.

[1] It underwent a major reconstruction in the late 15th century, which Willem Moreel partly financed along with members of the prominent Portinari, Gros and Moor families.

The inner panels share a continuous overcast skyline and broad landscape,[3] which contains two city-scapes, cottages and a meadow with a variety of trees, animals and wild strawberries, daisies, daffodils and other recognisable flowers and plants.

He is presented with his attributes, including a large staff, a symbol of Christ's miraculous presence,[4] and is intended as a protector against sudden death.

He closely resembles depictions in both Jan van Eyck's Ghent Altarpiece and now lost Saint Christopher, by whom Memling was deeply influenced by.

The Moreels are presented by Saint Wilhemus van Maleval,[10] who stands among them, dressed in a fur-lined black coat over army clothing.

Barbara wears a truncated hennin, a damask silk dress with a white collar, and a wide red belt with a golden buckle.

They are presented by Saint Barbara, patron of the donor's wife,[12] who is shown standing before the tower where she was, by legend, imprisoned, which through innovative use of perspective, she seems to hold in her hand.

The girl in the light brown clothing, black v-neck and transparent veil has been identified as Maria from her name written in her headband, their second-born daughter, given her linear position in the painting.

[13] Not all of the daughters were painted by Memling; examination by the art historian Dirk De Vos identifies at least six that are later additions layered over the original landscape.

The panels may have been completed after the deaths of Willem and Barbara, and dated as c 1504 by a number of art historians, probably commissioned by two of their sons,[note 1] Jan (John) and Jaris (George), as the final, successful, effort to have their parents interred within the chapel space.