Altarpiece from Averbode Abbey

On 4 December 1514 Jacob van Cothem in the Kammenstraat in Antwerp received a payment for the retable intended for the Abbey of Averbode. Whether Cothem was a trader or maker of retables is unclear. A fellow citizen, Nicolaas Huybs, financed the purchase with the proceeds from his activities as a beekeeper. In the church of the Abbey of Averbode the altarpiece was situated on the altar of HH Confessors. In 1873 the masterly altarpiece was purchased by the Museum for Antiquities, at that time located in the Steen.