The ''Seven Sacraments Altarpiece'' is a fixed-wing

triptych A triptych ( ; from the Greek adjective ''τρίπτυχον'' "''triptukhon''" ("three-fold"), from ''tri'', i.e., "three" and ''ptysso'', i.e., "to fold" or ''ptyx'', i.e., "fold") is a work of art (usually a panel painting) that is divided ...

by the

Early Netherlandish Early Netherlandish painting, traditionally known as the Flemish Primitives, refers to the work of artists active in the Burgundian and Habsburg Netherlands during the 15th- and 16th-century Northern Renaissance period. It flourished especiall ...

artist

Rogier van der Weyden Rogier van der Weyden () or Roger de la Pasture (1399 or 140018 June 1464) was an early Netherlandish painter whose surviving works consist mainly of religious triptychs, altarpieces, and commissioned single and diptych portraits. He was highly ...

and his workshop. It was painted from 1445 to 1450, probably for a church in Poligny ( Max J. Friedländer claimed that it was commissioned by the Bishop Jean Chevrot),Friedländer, Max J. ''From Van Eyck to Bruegel''. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1981 (reprint), 23. and is now in the

Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp The Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (Dutch: ''Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen'', ''KMSKA'') is a museum in Antwerp, Belgium, founded in 1810, that houses a collection of paintings, sculptures and drawings from the fourteenth t ...

. It depicts the seven sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church. On the left panel are baptism, confirmation and confession and on the right hand panel the ordination of a priest, marriage and the last rites. The central panel (possibly the only autograph part of the work) is dominated by a crucifixion in the foreground, with the sacrament of the Eucharist in the background. Angels hover over each sacrament with scrolls, with clothes colour-matched to the sacraments, from white for baptism to black for the last rites. The side panels also depict the altarpiece's commissioners, along with some portrait heads only added shortly before the work was completed. Two coats of arms (probably that of the commissioners) (left: "sable" chevron on "or" field; right: "argent" tower on "sable" field) are painted in the spandrels of the painting's inner frame.

References

Bibliography

*Felix Thürlemann: Rogier van der Weyden: Leben und Werk, C.H. Beck Wissen 2006, . *Flügelaltäre : Caterina Limentani Virdis, Mari Pietrogiovanna, München, Hirmer, 2002, . {{ACArt Paintings by Rogier van der Weyden Paintings in the collection of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp 1445 paintings 1446 paintings 1447 paintings 1448 paintings 1449 paintings 1450 paintings Paintings depicting the Crucifixion of Jesus Angels in art Paintings of the Virgin Mary Triptychs Churches in art