Saint John Altarpiece (van der Weyden)

Rogier van der Weyden · 1455

The story

The Saint John Altarpiece (German: Johannesaltar, Johannestafel or Johannesretabel) is triptych of c. 1455 in oils on oak panel by the Early Netherlandish painter Rogier van der Weyden, now in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. The triptych is linked to the artist's earlier Miraflores Altarpiece in its symbolic motifs, format and intention. The painting was featured in the 1980 BBC Two series 100 Great Paintings.

The panels show – from left to right – the birth of Saint John the Baptist, his baptism of Christ in the River Jordan, and his beheading, with Salome receiving the disembodied head on a plate. Each panel is set within painted archivolts, which contain painted reliefs depicting statuettes of the Apostles, and scenes from the lives of both Christ and Saint John, with the overall theme of salvation. The fictive sculptural reliefs are painted in grisaille, and give the impression that the scenes are set within a church.

There are two, almost equally sized versions, leading to difficulty in establishing attribution and authenticity. The Berlin triptych is considered the original and the Frankfurt version a near-contemporary copy.

Artist: Rogier van der Weyden
Date: 1455
Collection: Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, Germany
Movement: Early Netherlandish painting
Medium: oil paint, oak panel
Size: 77 × 48 cm

Story adapted from the Wikipedia article and its contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Facts from Wikidata (CC0). Image: Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.

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