Twelve Members of the Haarlem Brotherhood of Jerusalem Pilgrims

Around 1506 a brotherhood was founded in Haarlem that anyone could join, man or woman, on one condition. You had to have visited the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, the site of Christ's tomb. Here twelve of its members walk in pairs as if setting out in procession, while a thirteenth holds up a picture of the Sepulchre. They are not on their way anywhere. The palm branches they carry show that they have already made the journey, and the man at the head holds two because he went twice. Under each face a short verse gives the pilgrim's name and the year he travelled. Jan van Scorel had made the journey too, in 1520, and around 1528 he put himself into the line, third from the right.