The Donne Triptych was made for Sir John Donne of Kidwelly, who is kneeling on the left of the central panel to receive the blessing of the Child.
SS John the Baptist and John the Evangelist chosen probably because they were Sir John Donne's name saints.
Memling painted many similar compositions, but this version, with the scene extending across the shutters, is one of the most elaborate, and includes a characteristically detailed landscape.
Behind the mill on the river the hills recede to a hazy blue dis
автор:
Мемлинг Х.
Hans Memling
перемещение:
Князь Девонширский ( - 1957)
Duke of Devonshire
Лондон: Нац. гал. (1957 )
London: NGA
композиция:
Св. Иоанн Креститель, левая створка
St John the Baptist, the left shutter
композиция:
St John the Baptist holds a very realistic Lamb of God.
Memling may have included his own self portrait in the left-hand shutter of the triptych.
Богородица и Младенец с ангелами, свв. Екатериной и Варварой и донатором, центр
Virgin and Child with angels, SS Catherine and Barbara and donor, the centre
композиция:
The donator - who is represented in the painting together with his family - was Sir John Donne, an English knight.
Sir John and his wife are identified by their heraldic arms.
They also wear Yorkist collars of roses and suns, with King Edward IV's pendant, the lion of March.
Sir John frequently visited Calais, which was then an English territory and close to Bruges, where Memling worked.
The centre panel depicts the Virgin and Child, the donator Sir John Donne kneeling to the Virgin's right.
At the Virgin's left kneel the donor's wife Elizabeth and their oldest child, Anne.
The two female saints are Catherine, presenting Sir John to the Virgin, and Barbara behind Lady Donne.
Catherine's identifying wheel and Barbara's tower wittily appear as realistic incidents in the distant landscape behind them - the former as a millwhee