page_title: Pieter Pourbus
section_title: Religious paintings
hierarchical_section_title: Pieter Pourbus / Life / Pourbus as an established artist / Religious paintings
caption_attribution_description: English: Pourbus-Vanbelle-Triptiek
context_page_description: Pieter Jansz. Pourbus was a Flemish Renaissance painter, draftsman, engineer and cartographer who was active in Bruges during the 16th century. He is known primarily for his religious and portrait paintings.
context_section_description: Pourbus followed up on his Last Judgment and the Annunciation with the smaller Crucifixion in 1557.
  However, the Van Belle triptych is one of the most famous of his religious works and is often considered by art historians to be an important milestone in his career. An original design drawing of the painting contains handwritten comments, in which the artist agrees to portray the Madonna not with clenched hands but in a more resigned posture: with the arms pressed crosswise over one another. The theme of Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows was a popular subject of paintings in the Renaissance, and the unusual posture was perhaps an attempt to distinguish the painting from the many other depictions of the Virgin Mary at the time. The Van Belle triptych was partially influenced by the statue of the Madonna with Child by Michelangelo at the Church of Our Lady in Bruges.
  Pourbus' 1558 Pietà at the Église Saint-Maurice in Annecy and his Adoration of the Golden Calf, painted around 1559, are also examples of his many religious works.
  Pourbus and his painting style soon became the leading representative of the Italian High Renaissance as propagated in Antwerp by Frans Floris. One example of this style is the grotesques in which he depicted the portraits of Ghuyse-Van Male and his wife. At this point, Pourbus' work featured more translucent brushwork and a clear composition style. These aspects are evident in the Van Belle triptych, in which he paraphrases the composition of Jan van Eyck's The Virgin and Child with Canon Van der Paele from 1434. Pourbus began to gain a reputation in Bruges for his artwork and innovation; the Italian Ludovico Guicciardini names him as one of the most important painters of his time in his Descrittione di tutti i Paesi Bassi or Description of all the Low Countries in 1567.
caption: Tritych of the Virgin of Sorrows  also called Van Belle Triptych (1556), 139,8x123,3cm(center panel), 140,3x52cm(left-wing panel), 139,6x52cm(right-wing panel), Inscriptions: center panel, on the base of the left pilaster: "ANNO D(OMINI) - 1556, center panel on the base of the right pilaster: "PE POVRBVS FACIEBAT", on the frame of the left-wing panel: "AETATIS SVE - 45", on the frame of the right-wing panel: "AETATIS SVE - 44",
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