ヴェルル三連祭壇画

These two painted panels in the Prado are two-thirds of a lost object. They were the wings of an altarpiece finished in Cologne in 1438, and the centre they once folded around is gone, never recorded, so we do not know what holy scene the donor was praying towards. That donor is on the left wing, kneeling. He is Heinrich von Werl, a Franciscan theologian, presented by John the Baptist. On the right sits Saint Barbara reading by a fire, in a Flemish room so precisely described you can count the objects on the bench behind her. For centuries this hand was known only as the Master of Flemalle, an anonymous name invented for a group of pictures. Most historians now read it as Robert Campin, though a few still think these particular wings were done by a follower copying his manner.