BOUTS, Dieric the Elder
(b. ca. 1415, Haarlem, d. 1475, Leuven)

Martyrdom of St Erasmus (central panel)

c. 1458
Oil on wood
Sint-Pieterskerk, Leuven

On the central panel Bouts represents St Erasmus virtually naked and stretched out on a board, to which he is bound by his hands and feet. A hole has been cut in his belly and one end of his intestines tied to a winch. Two executioners are busy disembowelling him.