The St John Altarpiece (sometimes the Triptych of the two Saints John or the Triptych of St John the Baptist and St John the Evangelist) is a large oil-on-oak hinged-triptych altarpiece completed around 1479 by the Early Netherlandish master painter Hans Memling. It was commissioned in the mid-1470s in Bruges for the Old St. John's Hospital (Sint-Janshospitaal) during the building of a new apse. It is signed and dated 1479 on the original frame – its date of installation – and is today still at the hospital in the Memling museum.
The altarpiece consists of five paintings – a central inner panel and two double-sided wings. The panels on the reverse of wings are visible when the shutters are closed, and show the hospital donors flanked by their patron saints. The interior contains a central panel with the enthroned Virgin and Child flanked by saints; the left wing features episodes from the life of John the Baptist with emphasis on his beheading; the right wing shows the apocalypse as recorded by John of Patmos, pictured writing on the island of Patmos.
St John Altarpiece is one of Memling's more ambitious works, and shares near-identical scenes with two of other his works: the Donne Triptych, in London's National Gallery, and the Virgin and Child with Saints Catherine of Alexandria and Barbara in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
The painting was featured in the 1980 BBC Two series 100 Great Paintings.
Background and commission
Hans Memling purchased citizenship in Bruges late in January 30, 1465, suggesting he was a recent arrival to the city. He probably came from Brussels where he had been apprenticed to Rogier van der Weyden. He became established as a painter in Bruges fairly quickly.Ainsworth (1997a), 400 Although it appears he was absent from the city for Charles the Bold and Margaret of York's rather extravagant 1468 wedding,Bruce (1994), 79 art historian James Weale suggests that Memling may have travelled to England to complete a bridal portrait commissioned either by Charles the Bold or his father Philip the Good. According to Weale, Memling's position in Bruges was secured by the Dukes of Burgundy.Weale (1910), 177
Old St. John's Hospital (Sint-Janshospitaal) was one of four public hospitals in the city; one took in lepers, one paupers, and two – including St John's – treated men, women, and children. Established at the end of the 12th century, it was dedicated to John the Evangelist; at an unknown later date the dedication was extended to include John the Baptist. The Bruges civic authorities financed the hospital and oversaw its direction until the 1440s when a fiscal crisis resulted in decreased funding and increased supervision. The hospital brothers and sisters placed themselves under the authority of the Bishop of Tournai, Jean Chevrot, directly aligned with Philip the Good. By the 1470s the hospital masters and bursars not only averted bankruptcy, but accrued a surplus to spend on expansion.
Commissioned for the new apse, work on the altarpiece was probably begun in the mid-1470s,Ridderbos (2005), 142 and was almost certainly completed in 1479. The central frame is inscribed in Latin and reads; OPUS. IOHANNES MEMLING. ANNO. M. CCCC. LXXIX,Weale (1901), 40 The date gives clues to the identities of donors shown on the exterior panels; and because one died in 1475, scholars are confident in a start date before that year.Blum (1969), 87 Memling probably began work on the piece as early as 1473, when plans were made to extend the already large 240-bed infirmary, which, with two patients per bed, served about 500 people. As at the Hospices de Beaune, patients in Sint-Janshospitaal could follow the Liturgy of the Hours from their beds.
The altarpiece's prestigious location, coupled with its scope and execution, secured additional commissions for Memling.Ainsworth (1997c), 35 The Augustinian prelates, who were allowed to own property, ordered several later works from him, including the St Ursula Shrine, the Triptych of Jan Floreins, and the Triptych of Adriaan Reins – each still located in the hospital.Silver (2010), 6 They are today displayed in the Memling museum, in a room adjacent to the original infirmary.Blum (1969), 87–88 Unusually, the altarpiece in retains its original frames, but the panel's have suffered from extensive overcleaning.
Exterior panels The convention for exterior panels, visible when the wings were closed, was to show a pair of saints or donors gazing at saints. These deviate from that convention, depicting the donors looking directly at each other. Art historians speculate Memling emphasized the opening between the shutters with the donors's gazes, thereby directing attention to the importance of the devotional scenes visible on the insides when the winged shutters were opened.
St Anthony Abbot was in the Middle Ages commonly associated with sickness and ergotism (sometimes known as "St Anthony's Fire"), but also with the concept of miraculous healing.Hayum (1977), 508 He is shown on the left hand panel with his emblematic pig, next to St James; the two saints stand behind two kneeling male donors. The donors have been identified as Anthony Seghers, master of the hospital, and Brother James Ceuninc. Seghers joined the hospital as a brother in 1445, and by 1461 had risen to hospital master, a position he held intermittently until his death in 1475. He faces the center of the panel, flanked by his patron saint, Anthony, who leans on a tau staff with one hand and holds a bible in the other. Ceunic, a hospital brother from 1469 and bursar between 1488 and 1490, kneels to the left behind Seghers. His patron saint, James, is identifiable by his attributes of pilgrim's staff and hat, and stands behind him.Blum (1969), 88
The right panel shows St Agnes and St Clare standing behind the female donors, Agnes Casembrood, hospital prioress, and sister Clara van Hulson.Ridderbos (2005), 136 Casembrood faces the center. She joined the hospital in 1447, became prioress in 1455, and remained in that office until her death in 1489. Her namesake, St Agnes, is identified by the lamb at her side. Van Hulson was a hospital sister from 1427 until she died in 1479; she kneels in front of St Clare who holds a monstrance.
Unlike his predecessors Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden, who typical painted exterior wings in grisaille, Memling presents the saints in a realistic manner. Although the donors in van Eyck's Ghent Altarpiece and van der Weyden's Beaune Altarpiece are also painted realistically, they are placed within architectural niches separate from the adjacent statue-like grisaille saints. Memling breaks with that tradition in these exterior panels, but the subdued palette he uses retains some sense of grisaille.Ridderbos (2005), 135 The donors are dressed in their Augustinian habits; the two men in stark black and the two women in white on black. The saints are dressed in monochromatic clothing. St James wears a light blue cloak and St Anthony's is grey. St Agnes is dressed in drab green and St Clare is also in a dark habit. Although the figures seem to be in two niches, they are enclosed in a single shallow space, with stone walls behind, trefoil arches above, and two columns adorning the outermost edges. Where the wings open is a single column which has the appearance of two separate columns.
Netherlandish art in the 15th century was typically devotional.Harbison (1984), 87 It was intended to draw the viewer into a meditative state and perhaps even the "experience of miraculous visions."Ainsworth (1997b), 79 Art historian Craig Harbison believes Memling, by comparison to van der Weyden, is "less exalted", more "down-to-earth" and that the exterior panels in this piece might represent a popularization of van der Weyden's earlier concepts. Memling clearly shows the donors set apart from the religious vision on the interior panels.Harbison (1984), 105 The transition from the earthly to the heavenly realm, earlier represented in grisaille sculpture in van Eyck's and van der Weyden's work, is here less obvious. The St John Altarpiece has been criticized for having the donors merely "praying to a crack" but Harbison contends that Memling clearly shows the distinction between the worldly figures on the exterior and the biblical figures on the interior panels, and clarifies the "levels of reality" between the two sets of images. Harbison writes of Memling that "he has implied more strongly than earlier artists that it is donors' prayers which bridge the gap or crack leading to the visionary heart of the triptych."Harbison (1984), 106 The panels within were meant to provide a personal religious vision to the donors on the outside.Harbison (1984), 88
Interior panels When opened, the hinged doors of the wing panels reveal a vividly colored interior. The central focus is the enthroned Virgin and Child with saints; the left panel depicts the decapitation of John the Baptist with John the Evangelist opposite on the right.Blum (1969), 89–90 As a devotional piece it presents a narrative, meant to emulate a vision the donors or viewers would experience when viewing the inside panels. Unlike most altarpieces of these types, Memling's fails to present a single unifying iconographical focus and is quite generalized with themes that seem unsuited for its specific location, according to Blum.Blum (1969), 93 She speculates the donors may have chosen the specific iconography, which "celebrated intercessory saints on the interior". It is an unusual painting in that it seems to "have served a double function: that of personal propitiation and that of public altarpiece, which portrayed the role of the religious community within the hospital and venerated the saints who might particularly favor the sick".Blum (1969), 92
The iconography conveys the hospital's brothers' and sisters' daily lives, including both their quiet religious devotion and their struggle against illness; borne out in the choice of patron saints. John the Evangelist with book in hand, represents the quiet, contemplative life; John the Baptist's beheading is a scene of action, and, according to Blum, "the final dramatic end to one of the most active lives of any Christian saint".
The panels capture the essence of Memling's style, which Ridderbos describes as serene and filled with "sublime peace". The Baptist's decapitation portrayed by Memling, is subdued and restrained, and the apocalyptic scenes on the opposite panel are "more poetic than horrific". Maryan Ainsworth says it shows a carefully balanced composition, painted in light clear colors. Memling catered to foreign patrons, most of whom were Italian, and he became known for his unique style that combined southern Italian elements with those of the northern Netherlandish tradition. He juxtaposed "an Italianate monumentality and simplification of form with a northern sense of atmosphere and light in a format that often placed his subjects before a charming locally inspired landscape background", according to Ainsworth.Ainsworth (1997c), 34-35
Mystic marriage of St Catherine
The central panel, called the Mystic Marriage of St Catherine, depicts Mary seated on a throne beneath a baldachin covered with sumptuous brocade. Two seraphim hover directly beneath the canopy, holding her crown; they wear deep blue robes, and in the uncleaned version have blue faces and hands, a style evocative of earlier Netherlandish painters such as van der Weyden and Robert Campin.Michiels (2012 ed.), 111 The Christ child sits on his mother's lap, holding an apple in one hand and slipping the ring on St Catherine's finger to signify the mystic marriage with the other hand.