Mérode Altarpiece

The Merode triptych is a painting of Robert Campin, formerly known as Master of Merode or Master of Flémalle. The resulting 1425-1430 image is considered one of his masterpieces. It is painted in oil on wood. The middle part is the size of 64.5 × 64.5 cm. The wings are 64.4 × 27.2 and 27.8 inches tall. The image is located in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (more precisely: The Cloisters ) in New York.

The triptych had been found at the beginning of the 20th century in Westerlo in the family chapel of the Belgian Count de Merode, but it was kept after the First World War in the safe of a Swiss bank. Even before the Second World War, the Belgian Government had repeatedly tried to purchase one, but the Countess Jeanne de Merode had the painting eventually inherited in 1944 her niece Jeanne -Marie de Grunne. The Count de Grunne family sold it in 1958 for one million dollars (then equivalent of 4.2 million German Mark for masterpieces of Flemish painting a very large sum ) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, followed by a wave of national indignation in Belgium followed.

Motif

On the central panel of the Annunciation of the Archangel Gabriel is shown to Mary. On the left wing are the founders of the picture with his wife, Peter Engelbrecht and Gretchen ( Margarete ) Schrinmechers represented. Peter Engelbrecht was in 1400 as " Petr. Ynghelbrecht de Machelinia, m. Kind. Col. " enrolled at the University of Cologne. His origin " Machelinia " is Mechelen, where he lived later.

The central representation of the Annunciation is no accident, but rather plays on the name of the founder, " Engelbrecht " So the angel attached. On the right we see Joseph in the construction of mousetraps. Joseph as a carpenter and not as a carpenter explained by the comparison with the names of the wife of the donor: Schrinmechers, an archaic form for carpenters. The Mousetrap finds its meaning in the task of Joseph as " alibi husband " of Mary. He deceives the devil about the arrival of Jesus as Savior. The origin for this is the saying of Augustine that Jesus is the mousetrap for the devil. Yet this task is here transferred to Joseph.