The triptych of Willem Moreel, middle panel Saint Christopher with Saint Maurus of Glanfeuil and Saint Giles

Three saints, three grades of legibility

The title names three, and they sit at different points on the scale of recognisability. Christopher is the clearest: a giant fording water with a child on his shoulders and a staff in his hand, and the name itself is part of the sign, since it means bearer of Christ. Giles comes next, with a hind and an arrow from the legend of the hunt. Maurus is the hardest — a Benedictine, identified by habit and by company rather than by any object a viewer can name across a room. Put the three together and the picture demonstrates the whole hierarchy of the system in one panel.

What the record holds

The entry is dated 1484 and gives the Groeningemuseum, Bruges, Belgium as its location. The dimensions are 121 x 152.5 cm, a broad horizontal — the middle panel of the triptych the title names. It is filed under Landscapes, group portraiture, cultural heritage, mythological cultural heritage and Fantasy, with Northern Renaissance as the style and Flemish as the nationality; the measured colour family is ochre.

A donor in the title

The title also carries a private name, which is a different kind of naming altogether: not a saint identified by an object but a person identified by having paid. 3 titles in this catalogue carry the name Christopher, and this is the only one that shares its panel with two other named saints.