This thesis examines the meaning and function of the Braque Triptych (c. 1452) by Rogier van der Weyden (c. 1399/1400-1464). The Braque Triptych was commissioned by a noble lady, Catherine Brabant, as a private devotional altarpiece after the sudden death of her husband, Jean Braque. This study aims to analyze the Braque Triptych within the context of personal devotional practice and religious culture of the late Middle Ages in Northern Europe.
The Braque Triptych is remarkably discernible in style and content from other private devotional images made during the fifteenth century in Northern Europe. Typical private devotional images were rather small in scale, and depicted subjects such as Madonna and child, Man of Sorrows, and Salvator Mundi alone. In contrast, the Braque Triptych is composed of a central panel and two wings, and its relatively large size rivaled those of public altarpieces in churches. Further, the exterior panels were painted in grisaille so that the triptych could be closed at Lent. Thus, unlike former studies focusing solely on the middle panel of the Braque Triptych, this paper attempts to scrutinize the entire triptych and its relationship with religious customs of the period.
Catherine Brabant’s hope for her and her husband’s eternal salvation could have been expressed by means of the representation of three main Christian Sacraments in the Braque Triptych. In the middle of the interior panel, Christ is represented as a judge listening to the mediator’s entreaty and at the same time as a priest in charge of the Sacrament of Eucharist; the other two Sacraments, the Sacrament of Baptism and the Sacrament of Penance, seem to be depicted in the wings, i.e. by John the Baptist and Mary Magdalene. The scull motif and the inscriptions in the exterior panels, vanitas and memento mori, should be intended to instruct Christians to purge themselves of earthly delights for eternal redemption.
The motifs on the interior and exterior panels of the Braque Triptych imply several principles of the mystic religious movement which prevailed in Northern Europe around the fifteenth century. For example, meditation on the life of Jesus Christ, mystic experience through devotion, the importance of the Sacrament of Eucharist, the cult of Saints related to the life of Jesus Christ, and contemplation about worldly life. By having a distrust of the Catholic Church, the forerunners of the movement advocated personal experience of religious visions, unity of the laity and Christ, and most importantly, meditation on the divine life of Christ. On the other hand, the inscriptions above the head of the saints and Christ and the narratives represented by the saints suggest to the connection of the triptych with prayers in many Books of Hours of the same period. Thus, the Braque Triptych would have functioned for Catherine Brabant as a religious medium together with mediational books, prayers, and miniature illustrations in Books of Hours.
It could be said that the messages represented in the Braque Triptych unveil the complex religious culture of the Late Middles Ages in Northern Europe, and the affiliation of the Braque Triptych with other devotional tools demonstrates private devotional customs in daily life of a noble lay believer.