Norfolk Triptych

This small triptych is one of the few surviving paintings on panel executed in the Netherlands in the period around 1400. Due to the scarcity of source information and the rarity of works of this kind—the number of extant examples can be counted on the fingers of little more than two hands—almost nothing is known about painting before about 1430, around the time Jan van Eyck appeared on the scene. The saints depicted in the triptych suggest that the work was executed in Maastricht or Liège. The delicate treatment, reminiscent of miniature painting, and the use of materials such as gold leaf and the costly pigment lapis lazuli, point to an artist associated with the court. The architecture in the central panel recalls a Gothic church. In the upper section, the Virgin and God are seated on a heavenly throne. Beneath them, two lamenting angels lift Christ’s body from the tomb. But there is more to that last scene than meets the eye. What we know is that it was painted on a separate plank, which was subsequently inserted into the panel. The plank in question was cut from cedar, whereas the rest of the triptych is oak. It may have been a relic, possibly a fragment of the crucifix on which Christ died. If that is true, the panel would not only be an artistic representation of the Passion of Christ, but also a tangible allusion to the actual event.