Pieter Aertsen, 'Scenes from the Life of an Unidentified Bishop Saint', about 1560
About the work
Overview
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.
Key facts
Details
- 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
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.