The Mérode Altarpiece (or ''Annunciation Triptych'') is an oil on oak panel

triptych A triptych ( ) is a work of art (usually a panel painting) that is divided into three sections, or three carved panels that are hinged together and can be folded shut or displayed open. It is therefore a type of polyptych, the term for all m ...

, now in

The Cloisters The Cloisters, also known as the Met Cloisters, is a museum in the Washington Heights, Manhattan, Washington Heights neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City. The museum, situated in Fort Tryon Park, specializes in European medieval art ...

, in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. It is unsigned and undated, but attributed to

Early Netherlandish painter Early Netherlandish painting is the body of work by artists active in the Burgundian Netherlands, Burgundian and Habsburg Netherlands during the 15th- and 16th-century Northern Renaissance period, once known as the Flemish Primitives. It flour ...

Robert Campin Robert Campin (Valenciennes (France) c. 1375 - Tournai (Belgium) 26 April 1444) now usually identified with the Master of Flémalle (earlier the Master of the Merode Triptych, before the discovery of three other similar panels), was a master pai ...

and an assistant. The three panels represent, from left to right, the donors kneeling in prayer in a garden, the moment of the

Annunciation to Mary The Annunciation (; ; also referred to as the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Annunciation of Our Lady, or the Annunciation of the Lord; ) is, according to the Gospel of Luke, the announcement made by the archangel Gabriel to Mary ...

, which is set in a contemporary, domestic setting, and

Saint Joseph According to the canonical Gospels, Joseph (; ) was a 1st-century Jewish man of Nazareth who was married to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and was the legal father of Jesus. Joseph is venerated as Saint Joseph in the Catholic Church, Eastern O ...

, a carpenter with the tools of his trade. The many elements of religious symbolism include the lily and fountain (symbolising the purity of Mary), and the

Holy Spirit The Holy Spirit, otherwise known as the Holy Ghost, is a concept within the Abrahamic religions. In Judaism, the Holy Spirit is understood as the divine quality or force of God manifesting in the world, particularly in acts of prophecy, creati ...

represented by the rays of light coming through from the central panel's left hand window. The central panel was completed after 1422, likely between 1425 and 1428, it is thought by a member of Campin's workshop. An earlier version, now in Brussels, may be Campin's original panel. The outer wing panels are later additions by a workshop member, probably on request by the donor who sought to elevate the central panel to a triptych and place himself in the pictorial space. They contain views of the city of

Liège Liège ( ; ; ; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the Liège Province, province of Liège, Belgium. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east o ...

, in today's Belgium. The triptych is a founding and important work in the then emerging late Gothic, Early Netherlandish style, and has been described as a "milestone between two periods; it at once summarizes the medieval tradition and lays the foundation for the development of modern painting".Rousseau (1957), 117

Dating and attribution

The attribution of the New York triptych has been the subject of wide scholarly debate. It seems to have been completed the same year as the ''

Ghent Altarpiece The ''Ghent Altarpiece'', also called the ''Adoration of the Mystic Lamb'' (), is a very large and complex 15th-century polyptych altarpiece in St Bavo's Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium. It was begun around the mid-1420s and completed by 1432, and it ...

'', in 1432, making the painter a contemporary of

Jan van Eyck Jan van Eyck ( ; ; – 9 July 1441) was a Flemish people, Flemish painter active in Bruges who was one of the early innovators of what became known as Early Netherlandish painting, and one of the most significant representatives of Early Nort ...

. It is usually accepted as belonging to a group of paintings associated with the Master of Flémalle, assumed to be

. For a time it was attributed to Campin's apprentice

Rogier van der Weyden Rogier van der Weyden (; 1399 or 140018 June 1464), initially known as Roger de le Pasture (), was an Early Netherlandish painting, early Netherlandish painter whose surviving works consist mainly of religious triptychs, altarpieces, and commis ...

Burroughs, 131 based on the realistic style that would become van der Weyden's hallmark. There is another version of the Annunciation panel in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

, slightly earlier but damaged,Campbell (1974), 643 which may represent the original version by Campin. Technical examination of the wood panels suggest that the triptych was completed by a number of hands. The wood of the central panel is different and earlier to that of the wings, while the hinging further suggest that the central panel was not intended as part of a triptych. The central panel is likely a copy of an earlier composition by Campin, while the wings were probably a later commission from the donor to attach to the main panel to form a small private devotional altarpiece. Areas of the panels have been reworked; both the female donor and bearded man on the left wing were painted over landscape, while the window behind the Virgin was originally painted in gold.Suhr, 140-44 Campbell is not convinced by the association with Flémalle group, and thus Robert Campin. He describes the Mérode as "incoherent in design", lacking Campin's usual trait of spatial continuity, as found in the ''

Seilern Triptych ''The Seilern Triptych'' (also known as ''Entombment''), variously dated c. 1410-15 or c. 1420–25,Recht, 253 is a large oil and Gold ground, gold leaf on panel, fixed winged triptych altarpiece generally attributed to the Early Netherlandish p ...

''. The open sky as seen through the central panel windows is incongruous in point of view with the street scene in the donor panel. Campbell highlights poor command of perspective in the donor panel, and observes that it is "unfortunate that a line of one of the mortar courses in the garden wall disappear into the donor's mouth". Campbell describes the wing panels as pedestrian, and the product of lesser hands. He gives prominence to the Brussels panel, which he cautiously attributes to the Master of Flémalle.

Description

The triptych is relatively small, indicating that it was commissioned for private, domestic use; the central panel measures 64 × 63 cm and each wing is 65 × 27 cm. The panels share a very steep perspective, in which the viewer seems to be looking down on the figures from an elevated point of view. In other respects the perspective is underdeveloped; neither the Virgin nor Gabriel seem to rest on solid ground, while the female donor appears to hover and appears to be barely able to fit within the space she is positioned in.Rousseau (1957), 124 The panels are in good condition, with little over-paint, glossing, dirt layers, or paint losses.Annunciation Triptych (Merode Altarpiece)
.

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

. Retrieved 17 March 2017 They are almost entirely in oil, and establish many of the inventions that were to make the technique so successful and adaptable over the following centuries.Rousseau (1957), 121 The serenity of the works is achieved, in part, through the dominance of pale, opaque white, red, and blue hues. The size of the panels and the at times minute attention to detail are similar to the focus of contemporary miniatures, of the kind seem in the two

illuminated manuscripts An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared manuscript, document where the text is decorated with flourishes such as marginalia, borders and Miniature (illuminated manuscript), miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Churc ...

in the central panel.

Annunciation

The panel is one of the earliest representations of the

in a contemporary Northern European interior, which appears to be a dining room. This is Campin's main innovation, showing a reading Madonna, with unbound hair in a familiar setting, an image that lead to many adoptions, most famously

's '' Reading Magdalen''. The colors in the upper part of the central panel are dominated by the cool grays of the plaster and the brown of the timber wall,Gottlieb (1970), 76 while the lower half is mostly of warmer and deeper brownish greens and reds.Rousseau (1957), 117 Art historians suggest that the success of the panel is due to the contrast between the warm reds of the Virgin's robe and the pale blue hues of the archangel

Gabriel In the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam), Gabriel ( ) is an archangel with the power to announce God's will to mankind, as the messenger of God. He is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and the Quran. Many Chris ...

's vestment.Rousseau (1957), 118 The panels' perspective is unusually steep and unevenly distributed. The angle of the table in particular is illogical. Art historian Lorne Campbell describes these distortions as "disturbing".Campbell (1974), 644 It shows the moment before the traditional Annunciation scene, when Mary is still unaware of the presence of Gabriel. She is in a red gown rather than the more usual blue, and in a relaxed pose, reading from a

book of hours A book is a structured presentation of recorded information, primarily verbal and graphical, through a medium. Originally physical, electronic books and audiobooks are now existent. Physical books are objects that contain printed material, ...

, with her hair unbound. Unusually for a medieval depiction of the Annunciation, the dove of the Holy Spirit is not visible. Instead he is represented by the extinguished light of the candle, and the beam of light falling from the window to the left, which carries the Christ Child holding a cross.Reuterswärd (1998), 47–51 The Christ Child flies down towards Mary from the left oculus, signifying her impregnation by

God the Father God the Father is a title given to God in Christianity. In mainstream trinitarian Christianity, God the Father is regarded as the first Person of the Trinity, followed by the second person, Jesus Christ the Son, and the third person, God th ...

. He gazes directly at her and holds a cross. The folding-table contains a recently extinguished candle, and shows coiling smoke and a still glowing

wick Wick most often refers to: * Capillary action ("wicking") ** Candle wick, the cord used in a candle or oil lamp ** Solder wick, a copper-braided wire used to desolder electronic contacts Wick or WICK may also refer to: Places and placenames ...

. This may be a reference to the Holy Spirit, who, according to some late medieval writers, descended to the apostles "like a puff of wind".Reuterswärd (1998), 47 The white

lily ''Lilium'' ( ) is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants growing from bulbs, all with large and often prominent flowers. Lilies are a group of flowering plants which are important in culture and literature in much of the world. Most species are ...

in a Tuscan earthenware jug on the table represents Mary's virginity and purity, as does the white,

ocher Ochre ( ; , ), iron ochre, or ocher in American English, is a natural clay earth pigment, a mixture of ferric oxide and varying amounts of clay and sand. It ranges in colour from yellow to deep orange or brown. It is also the name of the col ...

towel. The jug contains a series of enigmatic letters in Latin and Hebraic, deciphered by some art historians as ''De Campyn'', which they presume as the artist's signature. An open manuscript is placed on the green velvet book pouch. Unusually, the book is positioned next to the Virgin rather than the shelf. The pages seem worn and handled, indicating that it has been well read. It has been suggested that the book reflects the

Carthusian The Carthusians, also known as the Order of Carthusians (), are a Latin enclosed religious order of the Catholic Church. The order was founded by Bruno of Cologne in 1084 and includes both monks and nuns. The order has its own rule, called th ...

Ludolf of Saxony's idea of the secluded life of the Virgin - that she earlier lived with "the Holy Scriptures as her sole companion". The right hand half of the back wall holds three windows, one of which contains a lattice screen. The beams of the ceiling are supported by a series of

corbel In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal keyed into and projecting from a wall to carry a wikt:superincumbent, bearing weight, a type of bracket (architecture), bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in t ...

s.Rousseau (1957), 120 The sky visible through the windows is a later addition, which was painted over an earlier

gold ground Gold ground (both a noun and adjective) or gold-ground (adjective) is a term in art history for a style of images with all or most of the background in a solid gold colour. Historically, real gold leaf has normally been used, giving a luxurious ...

. The armorial shields are also later additions.

Donors

The

donor A donor in general is a person, organization or government which donates something voluntarily. The term is usually used to represent a form of pure altruism, but is sometimes used when the payment for a service is recognized by all parties as re ...

and his wife are shown kneeling in prayer are in the left panel, looking through a half-open door into the Virgin's Hortus conclusus.Rousseau (1957), 117 The door presents a continuity oddity; although it can be seen opening into the Virgins room from the left panel, no such door entrance is visible in the center panel. Addressing this, the art historians Rose-Marie and Rainer Hagen suppose that the donor is "imagining that she has entered into his house. From without, he has opened the door; with his own eyes he beholds the Mother of God and petitions her for a family".Hagen; Hagen (2003), 33 The attendant dressed in a festive outfitRousseau (1957), 122 is by a later artist, perhaps it was added after the donor's marriage. The left hand space contains an unlocked entrance leading to a minutely detailed street scene.Reuterswärd (1998), 46 The panel is the more striking as the door leading into the Virgin's chamber is wide open, hugely presumptuous for even a mid-fifteenth century commission, and suggesting access to the gates of heaven.Gottlieb (1970), 78 The donors are identifiable as bourgeoisie from nearby

Mechelen Mechelen (; ; historically known as ''Mechlin'' in EnglishMechelen has been known in English as ''Mechlin'', from where the adjective ''Mechlinian'' is derived. This name may still be used, especially in a traditional or historical context. T ...

, and are documented in Tournai in 1427, identifiable from the

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

in the

stained glass Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...

window of the central panel. It is assumed that this panel was a later commission to Campin's workshop, not part of the original single panel design. There has been speculation that it was completed by the young

. The altarpiece was commissioned either by the businessman Jan Engelbrecht, or the

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

-born merchant Peter Engelbrecht and his wife Margarete Scrynmaker.Kleiner (2013), 441Merode Altarpiece (1435)
. visual-arts-cork.com. Retrieved 1 May 2017 Engelbrecht translates from German as "angel brings", while Scrynmaker means "cabinet maker", the latter perhaps influencing the choice of Joseph in the right hand panel.

Joseph

, a carpenter by trade, occupies the right-hand panel. He is shown at work, boring spike holes into one of the instruments of the Passion. An unusual feature is that, although Mary and Joseph did not marry until after the Annunciation, they are apparently living together and sharing the same space. Joseph is shown with the tools of his craft, visible implements include an ax, saw, rod, and a small footstool sitting before a fire of burning logs. Joseph's presence is may be intended to invoke 10 :15 from the

Book of Isaiah The Book of Isaiah ( ) is the first of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible and the first of the Major Prophets in the Christian Old Testament. It is identified by a superscription as the words of the 8th-century BC prophet Isaiah ben Amo ...

: "Shall the ax boast itself against him that heweth there- with? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself as if was it were no wood."Minott (1969), 267 Isaiah's words were intended as incentatory and revolutionary, were followed by a treatise for the salvation of

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

, and protested against an

Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , ''māt Aššur'') was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization that existed as a city-state from the 21st century BC to the 14th century BC and eventually expanded into an empire from the 14th century BC t ...

n king he considered boorish and vainglorious. Given this, Joseph is seen by art historians as a reassuring presence, warding the devil from the center panel.Schapiro (1945), 185 Joseph is presented as a relatively old man wearing an

eggplant Eggplant (American English, US, Canadian English, CA, Australian English, AU, Philippine English, PH), aubergine (British English, UK, Hiberno English, IE, New Zealand English, NZ), brinjal (Indian English, IN, Singapore English, SG, Malays ...

coloured coat and blue turban, in a panel dressed by dark and warm colours, framed by shadows thrown from the window shutters. He works on a mouse trap, probably a symbol of the cross at the

Crucifixion Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the condemned is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross, beam or stake and left to hang until eventual death. It was used as a punishment by the Achaemenid Empire, Persians, Ancient Carthag ...

,Duchesne-Guillemin (1976), 129 in that it represents an imagined but literal capture of the Devil, said to have held a man in ransom because of the sin of Adam.Minott (1969), 268 In some scripts, Christ's naked flesh was served as bait for the devil; "He rejoiced in Christ's death, like a bailiff of death. What he rejoiced in was then his own undoing. The cross of the Lord was the devil's mousetrap; the bait by which he was caught was the Lord's death." The background contains a cityscape, probably fictitious, showing the spires of two churches, one of which is now lost, the churches of St. Pierre (left) and Sainte Croix (right) in Liege.Duchesne-Guillemin (1976), 130-31

Iconography

The

iconography Iconography, as a branch of art history, studies the identification, description and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct fro ...

contains complex religious symbolism, although their extent and exact nature is debated – Meyer Schapiro pioneered the study of the symbolism of the mousetrap,Schapiro (1945), 82 and

Erwin Panofsky Erwin Panofsky (March 30, 1892 – March 14, 1968) was a German-Jewish art historian whose work represents a high point in the modern academic study of iconography, including his hugely influential ''Renaissance and Renascences in Western Art ...

later extended, or perhaps over-extended, the analysis of symbols to cover many more details of the furniture and fittings. Similar debates exist for many Early Netherlandish paintings, and a number of the details seen for the first time here reappear in later Annunciations by other artists. The symbolic elements in the central panel mostly relate to the Annunciation, the Mass and the

sacrament A sacrament is a Christian rite which is recognized as being particularly important and significant. There are various views on the existence, number and meaning of such rites. Many Christians consider the sacraments to be a visible symbol ...

of the

Eucharist The Eucharist ( ; from , ), also called Holy Communion, the Blessed Sacrament or the Lord's Supper, is a Christianity, Christian Rite (Christianity), rite, considered a sacrament in most churches and an Ordinance (Christianity), ordinance in ...

. Mary sits on the floor to show her humility. The

scroll A scroll (from the Old French ''escroe'' or ''escroue''), also known as a roll, is a roll of papyrus, parchment, or paper containing writing. Structure A scroll is usually partitioned into pages, which are sometimes separate sheets of papyru ...

and book in front of Mary symbolize the Old and the

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

s, and the roles Mary and the

Christ Jesus ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Christianity, central figure of Christianity, the M ...

child played in the fulfillment of prophecy. The lilies in the earthenware vase on the table represent Mary's virginity. Other symbols of her purity include the enclosed garden ('' Hortus conclusus''), and the white towel, while the small windows to the right, and the half-closed windows at the rear, serve to emphasise the quiet, virginal life she has lived. Merode Altarpiece Center Panel Detail c

The lion finials on the bench may have a symbolic role (referring to the

Seat of Wisdom Seat of Wisdom or Throne of Wisdom (Latin: ''sedes sapientiae'') is one of many titles of Mary, devotional titles for Mary, mother of Jesus, Mary in Roman Catholic tradition. In Seat of Wisdom icons and sculptures, Mary is seated on a throne wit ...

, or throne of

Solomon Solomon (), also called Jedidiah, was the fourth monarch of the Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy), Kingdom of Israel and Judah, according to the Hebrew Bible. The successor of his father David, he is described as having been the penultimate ...

) – this feature is often seen in other paintings, religious or secular (like

's ''

Arnolfini Portrait ''The Arnolfini Portrait'' (or ''The Arnolfini Wedding'', ''The Arnolfini Marriage'', the ''Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife'', or other titles) is an oil painting on oak panel by the Early Netherlandish painter Jan van Eyck, dated 14 ...

''). The arrangements for washing at the back of the room, which are considered unusual for a domestic interior, may relate to the similar arrangements of a

piscina A piscina is a shallow basin placed near the altar of a church, or else in the vestry or sacristy, used for washing the communion vessels. The sacrarium is the drain itself. Lutherans and Anglicans usually refer to the basin, calling it a pisci ...

for the officiating priest to wash his hands during

Mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

. The sixteen sides of the table may allude to the sixteen main Hebrew prophets; the table is usually seen as an altar, and the

archangel Archangels () are the second lowest rank of angel in the Catholic hierarchy of angels, based on and put forward by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite in the 5th or 6th century in his book ''De Coelesti Hierarchia'' (''On the Celestial Hierarchy'') ...

wears the

vestment Vestments are Liturgy, liturgical garments and articles associated primarily with the Christianity, Christian religion, especially by Eastern Christianity, Eastern Churches, Catholic Church, Catholics (of all rites), Lutherans, and Anglicans. ...

s of a

deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian denominations, such as the Cathol ...

. The basin may represent both the purity of Virgin, and the cleansing of the Christian act of

baptism Baptism (from ) is a Christians, Christian sacrament of initiation almost invariably with the use of water. It may be performed by aspersion, sprinkling or affusion, pouring water on the head, or by immersion baptism, immersing in water eit ...

. In the right-hand panel,

, a carpenter, has constructed a mouse trap symbolizing Christ's trapping and defeat of the devil, a metaphor used three times by

Saint Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; ; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430) was a theologian and philosopher of Berbers, Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia (Roman province), Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings deeply influenced th ...

: "The cross of the Lord was the devil's mousetrap; the bait by which he was caught was the Lord's death." The iconography of the right-hand panel has been studied in detail by Russell. He shows that the object that Joseph is working on is a scandalum or stumbling block, a spiked block that gashes the legs of a punishment victim who walks with it hanging from a cord around his waist. Joseph's joinery instruments are displayed in a consistently unnatural manner, suggesting that they have been planned to fit a specific agenda; for example the joinery instruments on the table are so placed as to represent the three crosses of Christ and the two thieves.

Provenance

Its early history is obscure. The triptych was owned by the aristocratic Belgian Arenberg and Mérode families from 1820 to 1849 before reaching the art market, and has been in the collection of

the Cloisters The Cloisters, also known as the Met Cloisters, is a museum in the Washington Heights, Manhattan, Washington Heights neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City. The museum, situated in Fort Tryon Park, specializes in European medieval art ...

, New York since 1956. Until its acquisition it had been in private collection for many years and thus inaccessible to both scholars and the public. Its purchase was funded by John D. Rockefeller Jr. and was described at the time as a "major event for the history of collecting in the United States".The Merode Altarpiece, a great and famous landmark in the history of western painting, by the Master of Flémalle, has been acquired for the Cloisters
". Metropolitan Museum of Art, 9 December 1957. Retrieved 30 March 2018

References

Notes

Citations

Sources

* Ainsworth, Maryan. "Intentional Alterations of Early Netherlandish Paintings". ''Metropolitan Museum Journal''. 2005, volume 40, 51–65 * Ainsworth, Maryan. "Religious Painting from 1420 to 1500". Maryan Ainsworth, et al. (eds.), ''From Van Eyck to Bruegel: Early Netherlandish Painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art''. New York: Metropolitan Museum, 1998. * Bauman, Guy. "Early Flemish Portraits 1425–1525". ''The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin'', Volume 43, No. 4, Spring, 1986 * Burroughs, Alan. "Campin and Van der Weyden Again". ''The Metropolitan Museum of Art Studies'', Volume 4, No. 2, March, 1933 * Campbell, Lorne. ''The Fifteenth Century Netherlandish Paintings''. London: National Gallery, 1998. * Campbell, Lorne. "Robert Campin, the Master of Flémalle and the Master of Mérode". ''Burlington Magazine'', volume 116, no. 860, November 1974 * Duchesne-Guillemin, Jacques.
On the Cityscape of the Mérode Altarpiece
. The University of Chicago Press; ''Metropolitan Museum Journal'', volume 11, 1976 * Davies, Martin. "Rogier van der Weyden: An Essay, with a Critical Catalogue of Paintings Assigned to Him and to Robert Campin". London: Phaidon, 1972 * Freeman, Margaret. "The Iconography of the Merode Altarpiece". ''The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin'', volume 16, No. 4, December 1957 * Gottlieb, Carla. "The Symbolism of the Mérode Altarpiece". ''Oud Holland'', volume 85, No. 2, 1970 * Hagen, Rose-Marie; Hagen, Rainer. ''What Great Paintings Say, Volume 2''. Cologne: Taschen, 2003. * Harbison, Craig. "The Art of the Northern Renaissance". London: Laurence King Publishing, 1995. * Jacobs, Lynn. ''Opening Doors: The Early Netherlandish Triptych Reinterpreted''. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2002. * Kleiner, Fred. ''Gardner's Art through the Ages: The Western Perspective, Volume 2''. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning, 2013. * McNamee, Maurice. ''Vested Angels: Eucharistic Allusions in Early Netherlandish Paintings''. Leuven: Peeters Publishers, 1998. * Minott, Charles Ilsley. "The Theme of the Mérode Altarpiece". ''The Art Bulletin'', volume 51, No. 3, 1969 * Lane, Barbara ''The Altar and the Altarpiece, Sacramental Themes in Early Netherlandish Painting''. New York: Harper & Row, 1984. * Panofsky, Erwin. ''Early Netherlandish Painting''. London: Harper Collins, 1971. * Installé, H. "The Merode-triptych. A Mnemonic Evocation of a Merchant Family that fled from Cologne and settled down in Mechelen" (''Le triptique Merode: Evocation mnémonique d'une famille de marchands colonais, réfugiée à Malines''). In: ''Handelingen van de Koninklijke Kring voor Oudheidkunde, Letteren en Kunst van Mechelen'', No. 1, 1992 * Reuterswärd, Patrik. "New light on Robert Campin". ''Konsthistorisk tidskrift (Journal of Art History)'', volume 67, No. 1, 1998 * Rousseau, Theodore. "The Merode Altarpiece". ''The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin'', volume 16, No. 4, 1957 * Schapiro, Meyer. "'Muscipula Diaboli', The Symbolism of the Mérode Altarpiece". ''The Art Bulletin'', volume 27, No. 3, 1945 * Smith, Jeffrey Chipps. ''The Northern Renaissance''. London: Phaidon Press, 2004. * Thürlemann, Felix. "Robert Campin: A Monographic Study with Critical Catalogue". Prestel, 2012. * Van Asperen de Boer, J.R.J., et al. "Underdrawing in Paintings of the Rogier Van Der Weyden and Master of Flémalle Groups.” Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek (NKJ) / Netherlands Yearbook for History of Art, vol. 41, 1990 * Wolff, Martha; Hand, John Oliver. ''Early Netherlandish painting''. Washington: National Gallery of Art, 1987.

External links

Catalogue entry at The Metropolitan
{{DEFAULTSORT:Merode Altarpiece 1420s paintings Paintings by Robert Campin Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art Christian iconography Renaissance paintings Triptychs Paintings of the Annunciation Barocci Books in art The Cloisters