MEDIEVAL IMAGES OF SAINT BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX - PA153.jpg

Category Painting
Origin: artist/workshop Allaert Claeyssins (+1531)
Date 16C/1
Reference No
Size
Provenance Cistercian Abbey of Les Dunes
Present Location Bruges, Church of Saint-Sauveur
Bibliography

Illustration From photo - IRPA/KIK
Other illustrations Martin 1925, 15

Country Belgium
Description:
Early sixteenth-century painting by Allaert Claeyssins originally from Les Dunes and now in the Church of Saint-Sauveur in Bruges. On the left a nimbed Bernard with hands clasped in prayer and his elaborate crozier leaning on his right shoulder kneels before the Virgin and naked child sitting on a throne-like chair with canopy above. The Virgin bares her breast which she squeezes with her right hand. A mitre is at the feet of Bernard. Bernard appears to be the portrait of an abbot. The scene is set in a landscape with an abbey and walls around and a gatehouse on the left, and some village buildings on the right. A group of monks are within the monastic precinct and a group of lay people in the village. There are four further images of Bernard carrying his crozier and with lay people kneeling before him whom be is blessing and perhaps healing.