Triptych of Saints John the Baptist and John the Evangelist
1549. Oil on panel.Room 057A
The Baptism of Christ, in the central panel, contains echoes of Gerard David, while the two side panels -The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist on the Island of Patmos- recall the work of Hans Memling. Both artists worked in Bruges in the fifteenth century. The apocalyptic vision of the Virgin is based on an engraving by Dürer. To adapt these models to contemporary tastes, Pourbus includes Mannerist elements such as the classical architecture and a broad range of human types and colours.
