Triptych of the Virgin and the Child

The Triptych of the Virgin and Child, or the Pear Triptych, is one of the thirteen works in the Painting Room depicting the birth of Jesus. It is attributed to the Master of the Holy Blood, a Flemish painter from the early 16th century.
The Virgin Mary and Jesus stand out in the central panel as the main protagonists. It is undoubtedly an image that distances itself from the poverty of the typical Nativity scene, something that can be explained by the union of Flemish art with the emerging bourgeois social class. Mary is a beautiful woman, with a thin face and a fine nose, and she is also gloriously dressed.
The Virgin fixes her gaze on Jesus, and a fruit, the apple, stands out as the protagonist. This recalls Eve's apple, the original sin, although in this case the artist wants to represent that Jesus is life and salvation.
The Son of God is a naked baby in his mother's arms, looking at this apple, a symbol of the future of humanity: his death will free us from sin. This insinuation is confirmed by the coral necklace with an engraved cross that the Child holds in his hand. A common protective amulet in paintings with scenes of the Virgin and Child from the 14th to the 16th centuries.
On either side of the panel, two sides open up with a background that invites us to see the triptych as a single scene. The left panel depicts Saint Catherine of Alexandria wearing a ring and a sword, an attribute that recalls her martyrdom by beheading. Another symbol of her martyrdom is drawn in the background, in the landscape where we see the cogwheel on which she was condemned to die, which, upon touching it, was miraculously destroyed. The protruding mountain refers to Mount Sinai, the place where the angels carried her body to be buried.
On the right, another very popular saint. Saint Barbara is shown reading with the tower where she was imprisoned by her own father for following Christ. During her captivity, she had three windows built into the tower, symbolizing the Holy Trinity. After refusing to renounce her faith, her father ordered her to be martyred on a nearby mountain.