MEMLING, Hans
(b. ca. 1440, Seligenstadt, d. 1494, Bruges)

Triptych of Earthly Vanity and Divine Salvation (rear)

c. 1485
Oil on oak panel, 22 x 15 cm (each wing)
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Strasbourg

Christ is presented as Salvator Mundi, surrounded by four musical angels with four differently coloured albs and pairs of wings. His figure is a miniature version of the Christ in the Nájera altarpiece (Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp). The Skull next to him has almost the same form as the one to be found on the rear of the Munich St John the Baptist. The text chiselled into the wall of the niche refers directly to the adjacent panel with the image of the Saviour. The decoratively designed coat-of-arms and motto are attributed to the Bolognese Loiani family. It has not been possible as yet to determine which member of the family originally owned the Strasbourg triptych.