MASTER of the Legend of Saint Barbara
(active 1470-1500 in Bruges)

Epitaph for the Nun Janne Colijns

c. 1491
Oak, 56 x 54 cm
Staatliche Museen, Berlin

The painter of this panel is referred to as the Master of the Legend of St Barbara. He was typical of the innumerable lesser masters of Bruges. His Epitaph for the Nun Janne Colijns is a poignant reminder of the fact that few early paintings were pictures in our contemporary sense of the word. Almost all had commemorative functions, recording events, ancestry, marriage, birth and death. This pictorial epitaph hung near the well-born nun's burial place.




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