Boulbon Altarpiece

In 1439, at the Council of Florence, the Greek and Latin churches briefly settled an old quarrel, whether the Holy Spirit comes from the Father alone or from the Father and the Son. A few years later in Avignon a canon, Jean de Montagnac, probably commissioned this altarpiece, and scholars read it as the Latin answer in paint. God looks out of a small window, the dove of the Spirit flies between his mouth and Christ's, and fine rays from both mouths meet at the bird. Christ stands in his tomb among the instruments of the Passion, the column with its ropes, the scourge, the lance. The kneeling canon is presented by the bishop Saint Agricol, whose scroll says, this is our faith. In the 16th century it moved to the village church of Boulbon, and in 1904 the organisers of a Paris exhibition of French primitives bought it for the Louvre.