Master of the St Bartholomew Altarpiece 
Altarpiece of the Holy Cross, c. 1490–1495

The central panel of this three-part altarpiece (triptych) conveys the illusion of carved and painted sculptures. In addition, the weeping and lamenting figures of the saints seem even today to come alive! The Resurrection is in a sense anticipated by this sophisticated play of media.

The profound, but in places also humorous trompe l’œil effects (or optical illusions) suggest a demanding and visually discerning client: the Altarpiece of the Holy Cross was commissioned by the lawyer Dr Peter Rinck, who later bequeathed this triptych to a Carthusian monastery in Cologne. He may well have had this ultimate destination in mind from the outset, for the inside of the right-hand wing shows just such a Carthusian monastery. In the background of the inside of the left-hand wing, by contrast, we see a landscape with a river, representing the valley of the Jordan and thus the region associated with the mission of John the Baptist (standing in the left foreground).

Typical of the painter’s extraordinary precision is the reproduction of the inscription in three languages (Hebrew, Greek and Latin) which Pilate ordered to be attached to the Cross, and which it was believed had recently (1492) been rediscovered in Rome. The parts of the text which this relic had lost through the ravages of time are, in our picture, discreetly concealed by the painted carvings. The painter has also corrected a demonstrably wrong letter in the alleged ‘original’. As the inscription ultimately constitutes a legal document, it was doubtless of special importance to Peter Rinck.

Master of the St Bartholomew Altarpiece
active in the Netherlands c. 1475 – 1510

Altarpiece of the Holy Cross, c. 1490 – 1495
Oak, central panel 107 x 80 cm, wings each 107 x 34 cm
Acquired 1862
Inv. no. WRM 0180
Photo: Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln