1467-1470 Hans Memling In a single image that extends across all three panels, the altarpiece combines a view of the Crucifixion (with the Virgin Mary, St. John the Evangelist, and St. Mary Magdalene to the left of the cross) with images of the donor, his family, and their patron saints. Jan Crabbe kneels to the right of the cross, presented by his eponymous saint, John the Baptist, and by Bernard of Clairvaux, the founder of the Cistercian order. Anna Willemzoon, Carabbe's mother, is at left, with St. anne, while Willem de Winter, Crabbe's much younger half-brother is at right, presented by St. William. The broad landscape with its gathering storm clouds and the precise details of the plants, clothing, and distant buildings all attest to Memling's technical abilities. What is most extraordinary about the painting, however, is Memling's humanity: the exhausted grief of the figures to the left of the cross, for example, of the frank depiction of old age in the faces of St. Bernard and Anna Willemzoon.
aperture=f2.0 focal length: 55.0 mm exposure 1/60 sec ISO: 3200