The Le Cellier Altarpiece
1509
Medium
Oil on wood
Dimensions
Shaped top: central panel 40 x 24 in. (101.6 x 61 cm); left wing 37 3/4 x 10 in. (95.9 x 25.4 cm); right wing 37 1/2 x 9 1/2 in. (95.3 x 24.1 cm)
Classification
Paintings
Department
European Paintings
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Friedsam Collection, Bequest of Michael Friedsam, 1931
Accession Number
32.100.102
Tags
About this artwork
This remarkable triptych, created in 1509 by Jean Bellegambe, represents a sophisticated fusion of religious devotion and personal commemoration. The altarpiece was commissioned by Jeanne de Boubais for the Cistercian convent where she served as abbess, demonstrating the important role of female patronage in early sixteenth-century religious art. The central panel and interior wings depict Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, the influential twelfth-century reformer of the Cistercian order and devoted ad...