Eve

Eve stands in a stone niche barely wider than her shoulders, and Adam, on the matching panel, stands in another. Together they formed the outside of Memling's small St John altarpiece, so that when the wings were closed the first man and woman were all a worshipper saw. Painters in the Netherlands often gave those outer panels stone-grey figures imitating statues. Memling kept the niche and the statue's stance but gave the figure living skin, and the museum describes the pair as sculptures come to life. Opening the wings moved the story on to the inside, where the enthroned Virgin sits between the two Saints John, painted in Bruges around 1485 to 1490.