The subject of this painting by Gerard David is exceptional. Not only within his oeuvre, but also with respect to Bruges painting from around 1500. However, the iconography was used more frequently in miniature art and it is quite possible that Gerard David drew inspiration from this. The image of the Transfiguration is faithful to the Bible story; in order to pray, Jesus climbed a high mountain together with three of his apostles – Peter, John and James – who fell asleep. As can be seen at the bottom of the panel, they were suddenly startled awake and, to their great surprise, saw Jesus, his face shining like the sun and his clothes turned white, in conversation with two prophets. Similarly, at the end of this event, the voice of God, depicted at the top of the panel, can be heard proclaiming that Jesus is his son. The side panels of the Transfiguration featuring a Bruges family were only painted and added in 1573 by Pieter Pourbus.

MASTERPIECE

The fact that the side panels of this triptych were made by a different painter is notable but not unusual. Our idea of an artist as a solitary, tormented genius is an 18th-century notion. Painters in the 15th and 16th century were craftsmen. Therefore, they not only produced paintings, but they also painted, for example, banners and coats of arms or they carried out restorations. A famous example is the Ghent Altarpiece, also called the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, painted by the Van Eyck brothers, which was restored by Lancelot Blondeel and Jan van Scorel in 1550. But sometimes artists were also asked to alter already existing artworks. In the case of Hans Memling’s Portrait of a young woman or Sibylla Sambetha, it is possible that the still visible banderole and cartouche were added in the 16th century by Pieter Claeissens II (the typography corresponds to that of the Allegory of the 1577 Peace in the Netherlands). In the case of this painting by Gerard David, Pieter Pourbus was engaged to add entire shutters to the work.

This artwork is the property of the Church of Our Lady in Bruges and is managed by Musea Brugge.