A triptych: the central panel: The Virgin and Child; the wings: Saint Catherine of Alexandria; Saint Barbara

The doll-like features of the figures and the complex arrangements of drapery in this small triptych clearly express the influence of the work of Jan Cornelisz. van Oostsanen, one of the most significant painters working in the northern Netherlands during the early sixteenth century. Similarly, the way in which the various carefully rendered plants in the central panel are depicted recalls the comparable treatment in the painter’s early masterpiece Christ Appearing to Mary Magdalen as a Gardener of 1507 (Kassel, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister). Though van Oostsanen spent the majority of his life working primarily in Amsterdam and Haarlem, he is believed to have travelled to Antwerp in the around 1520 where he may have met Albrecht Dürer. The scale and format of this triptych, suggest that its painter was aware of both the northern and southern traditions. While much in the treatment of the figures is reminiscent of van Oostsanen’s influence, the impact of the Antwerp Mannerists is also evident and the shaped top of the triptych is typical of objects produced in the city. The wing panels both include smaller narrative scenes behind the main figures. In the left wing, a bolt of fire can be seen streaming from Heaven to shatter the wheel on which Saint Catherine was to be put to death. Behind Saint Barbara, at the right, the bad shepherd can be seen betraying her to her father, the treachery which led to her martyrdom.