Workshop of the Master of the Life of the Virgin, 'The Conversion of Saint Hubert: Left Hand Shutter', probably 1485-90

This panel once formed the inner part of the left-hand shutter of an altarpiece made for the Benedictine abbey at Werden, near Cologne. The inner face of the right-hand shutter, which is also in the National Gallery’s collection, shows the Mass of Saint Hubert.

Saint Hubert is shown kneeling in prayer in front of a vision of Christ on the Cross, which has miraculously appeared between the antlers of a stag. Hubert had been out hunting with his dogs in the forest of Ardennes on Good Friday, the day that Christians commemorate Christ’s crucifixion, when he had this miraculous vision of Christ, which converted him to Christianity. This panel shows him kneeling in adoration before the Crucifix. The hunting dogs, in contrast to Hubert’s stillness, bare their teeth at the stag, the object of their hunt. A page restrains Hubert’s startled horse, which seems to be still in the process of coming to a halt, emphasising the suddenness of Hubert’s dismount. In the meantime, the hunt continues in the hillside above.

Images of Saint Hubert’s vision of Christ do not appear before the fourteenth century – 600 years after his death – when it is thought that his legend was combined with that of Saint Eustace, who was converted in the same way (see The Vision of Saint Eustace by Pisanello). Before his conversion, Hubert was a courtier ​in Metz, a city in the eastern Frankish Kingdom, and an enthusiastic hunter. The artist has evoked his wealth and status through his elaborate clothing – his gold damask tunic is edged with fur, and slashed to reveal his red velvet sleeve beneath. After his vision, Hubert gave up all of his possessions and began to preach Christianity in the Ardennes, becoming the principal evangelist of the area. He became Bishop of Liège in 716.

The image is carefully composed: the narrative unfolds from left to right, and Hubert kneels in prayer facing the right – towards the holy apparition, but also in the direction of the altarpiece’s central panel, which may have included holy figures like the Virgin Mary and Christ. He is separated from the stag and vision by a stony path, which not only distinguishes human from divine but also leads into a wooded glade and beyond to a mountainous landscape, painted in blue to suggest its distance. The sky is made of gold leaf which would have shimmered in the light of the candles on the altar. The painting also has an imagined internal light source: careful shadows, for example beneath Hubert’s bent right leg, suggest a crisp daylight.