Seilern Triptych

Although Campin's life is relatively well documented for the time, there are no surviving records of this commission, and at 60 x 48.9 cm it is too small to have functioned as a church altarpiece - possibly it was intended for private devotion.

The influence of the Seilern Triptych is discernible in works by major artists, including Rogier van der Weyden,[6] Dieric Bouts, Quentin Massys, and Peter Paul Rubens.

[5] Especial detail is given to the thieves hanging in torment in the left-hand panel, still alive, bound by rope to their crosses and left there even after Christ has been brought down and laid to his tomb.

The scale is much reduced, and the figures are far more tightly compacted, bringing them much closer to the viewer, setting the scene with a far shallower and less realised space than the wings.

In this way, the tomb is positioned, as described by art historian Shirley Blum, "the altar supporting Body and Blood of the dead Christ".

They include Mary, Joseph of Arimathea (With a brown beard, dressed in pale (now) yellowish clothes and supporting Christ's head) and Nicodemus.

Strong emphasis is given to the shroud covering the body of Christ, a motif later seen in works by Jean Michel and Georges de la Sonnette; both pupils of Sluter.

Two hovering angels carry the instruments of the Passion, including the sponge, nails and the crown of thorns,[5] represent the Crucifixion.

[2] The central panel has sometimes been compared to Italian equivalents, especially to Simone Martini's c 1334, Entombment, which, since it was taken to Dijon, Campin may have seen first-hand.