Pieter Aertsen, 'Scenes from the Life of an Unidentified Bishop Saint', about 1560
| Full title | Scenes from the Life of an Unidentified Bishop Saint |
|---|---|
| Artist | Pieter Aertsen |
| Artist dates | 1507/8 - 1575 |
| Date made | about 1560 |
| Medium and support | Oil on wood |
| Dimensions | 75 × 56 cm |
| Acquisition credit | On loan from a private collection |
| Inventory number | L578 |
| Location | Not on display |
| Image copyright | On loan from a private collection, © Private collection 2000. Used by permission |
| Collection | Main Collection |
Three scenes are included in the picture, in each of which the bishop is shown doing good works. In the foreground he gives money to a beggar, in the background on the left he heals a blind man. In the corresponding feast scene on the right, he prepares to wash a poor man, perhaps the same man who appears in the foreground.
It has been suggested that the bishop might be Saint Albinus, Bishop of Angers from 529, who was a patron saint of the blind. The picture was probably painted as a single devotional work, rather than as part of an altarpiece, and dates from about 1560, when Aertsen had moved from Antwerp to Amsterdam.
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