The Bad Thief to the Left of Christ

This grim panel is a survivor from a painting that no longer exists. Around 1430, in the workshop of Robert Campin in Tournai, a large folding altarpiece was made whose centre showed Christ being taken down from the cross. We know that centre now only from later copies. This board is a piece cut from the top of one wing, and it shows the bad thief, the criminal crucified beside Christ who mocked him, his body slumped and already dead on a T-shaped cross. On the back, once folded shut, stood a painted figure of John the Baptist done to look like a grey stone statue, so that with the wings closed the outside of the whole altarpiece read as plain carved stone.