St Augustine Sacrificing to a Manichaean Idol (?)

A figure kneels at a shrine while a sheep and a goat are brought as offerings to a gilded statue, and trumpeters play close by. For a long time nobody could say which story this was. It has been read as King Solomon worshipping false gods, and as an episode from the life of Saint Nicholas, of the apostle Philip, or of Saint Géry, an early bishop of Cambrai. The Rijksmuseum now leans toward Saint Augustine, who as a young man followed the Manichaeans, a religious movement he fought hard against after his conversion, and it keeps a question mark in the title.

The panel has two companions of almost the same size, one in Dublin and one in Paris, and the same man in a red gown, blue stole and purple hat appears in all three. The Paris panel shows the church of Saint Gudula in Brussels with its north tower only half built. That tower was finished around 1480 to 1485, so the series was painted shortly before.