Saint John the Baptist

Look past John the Baptist to the pillar behind his shoulder. A man in a red cap is leaning out from behind it, watching the centre of the altarpiece, where Sir John Donne and his family kneel before the Virgin. Nobody knows who he is. He is plainly a portrait of a real person, and some writers have wanted him to be Memling himself, though nothing proves it. The Baptist was Donne's name saint, so he has this wing to himself, barefoot on a tiled floor, a purple mantle over his hair shirt and the lamb resting on his arm. The other face of this same panel was seen only when the triptych was shut. There Memling painted Saint Christopher carrying the Christ Child, entirely in greys, so that he looks like a stone statue standing in a niche.