Virgin and Child with Saints Catherine of Alexandria and Barbara

Memling made this in Bruges around 1479, when the city was one of the richest in northern Europe and its merchants wanted small, jewel-like paintings to pray before at home. At the centre the Virgin holds the Christ child, who reaches out to slip a ring onto the finger of Saint Catherine, her mystic marriage to Christ. Barbara sits reading on the other side, calm and absorbed. Kneeling at the left, a man tells his rosary and watches the scene as if it were unfolding before him in the room. We no longer know his name, only that he paid for this quiet vision and had himself set inside it, close enough to the holy figures to share their still, enclosed garden.