page_title: Moreel Triptych
section_title: Left panel
hierarchical_section_title: Moreel Triptych / Interior / Left panel
context_page_description: The Moreel Triptych is the name given to a 1484 panel painting by the Early Netherlandish painter Hans Memling. It was commissioned by the prominent Bruges politician, merchant and banker Willem Moreel and his wife Barbara van Vlaenderberch, née van Hertsvelde. It was intended as their epitaph at the chapel of the St. James's Church, Bruges, an extension they paid for, to the funerary church of Willem's family, where the couple intended to be interred in an underground tomb before the altar.
  The inner center panel of the triptych altarpiece show Saint Christopher holding the Christ Child, with Saint Maurus to his left and Saint Gills to his right. Willem Moreel kneels in prayer and venerating the saints in the left-hand panel with their five sons. Barbara kneels with eleven of their daughters on the right panel. The exterior panels are probably an early 16th-century addition, completed after the donor's and artist's deaths.
  The triptych was installed on the altar of St. James's Church in 1484. It is in its original frames, which are each inscribed with the words anno Domini 1484, or a variant containing the year, on their lower borders.
context_section_description: The left interior wing shows Willem Moreel kneeling, his hands clasped in prayer, before an open prayer book. His hair is short in a bowl cut,  wears a fur-lined dress and black doublet, a very fashionable outfit in the 1480s. Behind him are his five male children, also shown kneeling. Of the sons, two are known to have died in infancy. Willem was the oldest, while John and George are thought to have commissioned the outer panels after their parents' death (see below).
  The Moreels are presented by Saint Wilhemus van Maleval, who stands among them, dressed a fur-lined black coat over army clothing. He places his hand on Willem's shoulder, as he guides and presents him to Christopher in the center panel.
caption: Left panel, with Willem Moreel, sons, and Saint Wilhemus van Maleval
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