Triptych with the Virgin and Child, John the Evangelist and Mary Magdalene

This is a small altarpiece for private prayer, made in Bruges in the early 1520s. In the centre the Virgin supports the Christ Child on a stone ledge. He holds a goldfinch, a bird that stood for his coming Passion, and its string is tied to a majolica vase of red roses and lilies of the valley, flowers of Mary's purity. On the left wing stands a young, beardless John the Evangelist with his chalice, and a small dragon climbs out of it, the sign of the poisoned cup he was said to have drunk unharmed. On the right, Mary Magdalene holds her jar of ointment, dressed in a costly gown and jewels that recall her worldly life.

The original frame of the centre panel is painted with ornament borrowed from woodcuts by Albrecht Dürer, the German printmaker. The triptych is catalogued as Provoost's, though technical study suggests the centre panel itself may be by another painter. Closed, the wings show painted marble, green on one side and red porphyry on the other.

The work belongs to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, which received it in 1912 from the estate of the collector Cornelis Hoogendijk, and it has been on loan to the Mauritshuis since 1924.