Роберт Кампен шеберханасының 15 ғасырлық «Мёроде триптихі»

15th century painting by the workshop of Robert Campin

The Mérode AltarpieceThe triptych is named after a previous owner, comtesse Marie Nicolette de Merode (1849–1905) (or Annunciation Triptych) is an oil on oak panel triptych, now in The Cloisters, in New York City. It is unsigned and undated, but attributed to Early Netherlandish painter Robert Campin and an assistant. The painting is attributed by the Metropolitan Museum of Art to "Robert Campin and assistant". The "assistant" is attributed with the figure of the female donor, rather than the main subjects The three panels represent, from left to right, the donors kneeling in prayer in a garden, the moment of the Annunciation to Mary, which is set in a contemporary, domestic setting, and Saint Joseph, a carpenter with the tools of his trade. The many elements of religious symbolism include the lily and fountain (symbolising the purity of Mary), and the Holy Spirit represented by the rays of light coming through from the central panel's left hand window. The central panel was completed after 1422, likely between 1425 and 1428,Dates as early as 1420 have been suggested, based on Campin presumed birth date and that Jan van Eyck's Ghent Altarpiece "Annunciation" was influenced by Campin's treatment of the same subject. See Rousseau (1957), 128 it is thought by a member of Campin's workshop. An earlier version, now in Brussels, may be Campin's original panel. The outer wing panels are later additions by a workshop member, probably on request by the donor who sought to elevate the central panel to a triptych and place himself in the pictorial space. They contain views of the city of Liège, in today's Belgium. The triptych is a founding and important work in the then emerging late Gothic, Early Netherlandish style, and has been described as a "milestone between two periods; it at once summarizes the medieval tradition and lays the foundation for the development of modern painting".

The iconography contains complex religious symbolism, although their extent and exact nature is debated – Meyer Schapiro pioneered the study of the symbolism of the mousetrap, and Erwin Panofsky later extended, or perhaps over extended, the analysis of symbols to cover many more details of the furniture and fittings. Similar debates exist for many Early Netherlandish paintings, and a number of the details seen for the first time here reappear in later Annunciations by other artists. The symbolic elements in the central panel mostly relate to the Annunciation, the Mass and the sacrament of the Eucharist. Mary sits on the floor to show her humility. The scroll and book in front of Mary symbolize the Old and the New Testaments, and the roles Mary and the Christ child played in the fulfillment of prophecy. The lilies in the earthenware vase on the table represent Mary's virginity. Other symbols of her purity include the enclosed garden (Hortus conclusus), The basin may represent both the purity of Virgin, and the cleansing of the Christian act of baptism. In the right hand panel, Saint Joseph, a carpenter, has constructed a mouse trap symbolizing Christ's trapping and defeat of the devil, a metaphor used three times by Saint Augustine: "The cross of the Lord was the devil's mousetrap; the bait by which he was caught was the Lord's death." The iconography of the right hand panel has been studied in detail by Russell. He shows that the object that Joseph is working on is a scandalum or stumbling block, a spiked block that gashes the legs of a punishment victim who walks with it hanging from a cord around his waist. Joseph's joinery instruments are displayed in a consistently unnatural manner, suggesting that they have been planned to fit a specific agenda; for example the joinery instruments on the table are so placed as to represent the three crosses of Christ and the two thieves.

Its early history is obscure. The triptych was owned by the aristocratic Belgian Arenberg and Mérode families from 1820 to 1849 before reaching the art market, and has been in the collection of the Cloisters, New York since 1956. Until its acquisition it had been in private collection for many years and thus inaccessible to both scholars and the public. Its purchase was funded by John D. Rockefeller Jr. and was described at the time as a "major event for the history of collecting in the United States".