| Painting attributed to Jean Bellegambe and painted 1506-9 for the Cistercian nuns of Flines (Nord). A crowned Virgin sits on a throne with a delicately traceried back. Her voluminous cloak is held up by two angels. Beneath it, on the left, is a nimbed Bernard carrying a crozier and accompanied by a large group of monks, all of them in white cowls. On the right, a community of nuns, in white habits and black veils, is headed by the donor, Ysabel de Malefiance, cellarer of the abbey (whose name appears on the frame: Dame Isabelle de Malefiance), and not the abbess, Jeanne de Boubais, whose portrait appears on the reverse in a scene of the Last Judgment. This motif - Our Lady of Mercy - was based on the famous story by Caesarius of Heisterbach in his 'Dialogue of Mirecles' and was very popular in Cistercian iconography.
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