Triptych: Virgin and Child with Saints and Donors

About thirty years after it was painted, this late-fifteenth-century domestic triptych was modified for its new owners. Their portraits were then added to the lateral panels with their children and patron saints John the Baptist and Catherine. In the central panel the Virgin and Child are adored by St. Catherine, wearing a crown, and St. Barbara holding the palm branch. The new oil technique gave Northern European artists more vivid and transparent colors, which allowed them to paint a wider range of effects and details from nature such as the receding landscape, the strawberry plant on the foreground, and the bird on the roof.