Canon Bernardijn Salviati and Three Saints

Bruges around 1500 still had its community of Italian merchants, and the man kneeling here came out of it. Bernardijn Salviati was the illegitimate son of a Florentine nobleman who had probably run the Bruges branch of his family's company in the 1460s. The son became a canon of Saint Donatian's church, and in January 1501 he was given permission to restore a chapel there dedicated to Saint John the Baptist and Mary Magdalene. This panel was almost certainly painted for it, one half of a diptych whose other half was probably the Crucifixion now in Berlin. Three saints stand around him. Martin of Tours wears the red cope, and the beggar he gave his cloak to walks the road behind. The Franciscan in grey is Bernardino of Siena, the canon's name saint. Donatian, patron of his church, holds a wheel set with candles.