Ankunft und Triumph Christi

Memling made this around 1480 for the tanners' guild in Bruges, then one of the richest trading towns in Europe, and it works less like a single picture than a whole city seen at once. On one panel, a little over 80 centimetres tall but nearly two metres wide, he lays out roughly 25 scenes from the life of Christ, from the Annunciation through the Nativity and the Passion to the Resurrection and beyond. There is no central scene to anchor your eye. Instead the story winds back through a continuous landscape of hills, roads, and towns, so that the shepherds, the three kings, and the risen Christ all share one panoramic world. It is one of the earliest wide landscape paintings we have. The people who first prayed in front of it would have followed the whole story on foot with their eyes, moving from town to distant town.