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

This panel, which shows Saint Hubert, once decorated the inner face of the right-hand shutter of an altarpiece made for the Benedictine abbey in Werden, near Cologne. An earlier episode of the saint’s life – the moment of his conversion to Christianity – appeared on the left-hand shutter.

Saint Hubert is shown here as a mature man. His shaven hairstyle is a tonsure, which was a sign of religious piety. After his conversion Hubert devoted himself to Christianity, and this scene shows him being consecrated as Bishop of Liège. An angel appears before him with a stole (part of the liturgical dress of a bishop, worn around the neck). Behind, a deacon holds a mitre (hat) and a crosier (an ornamental crook), both of which distinguish bishops from other members of the clergy.

A relief sculpture of God the Father enthroned forms the central part of the gilded altarpiece, overseeing the ceremony. He is flanked on either side by Saints Peter and Paul, significant here for their role in spreading the word of Christ as the Church’s first apostles – perhaps a reference to Hubert’s own life of preaching. The walls of the church are gilded to match the gilded sky of the left-hand shutter. As in that picture, the gilded features – the altarpiece and the tiny stars in the vaults above – would have glimmered in the candlelight of the original setting.