Artwork
St. Barbara Directing the Construction of a Third Window in Her Tower
St. Barbara Directing the Construction of a Third Window in Her Tower is an oil painting by the Northern Renaissance artist Master of Affligem. It dates from 1500 and is held in the collection of the Walters Art Museum.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The painting illustrates a specific episode from the legend of Saint Barbara, depicting the saint directing the construction of a third window in her tower.
The painting illustrates a specific episode from the legend of Saint Barbara, depicting the saint directing the construction of a third window in her tower. The composition features Barbara overseeing stonemasons and bricklayers working on scaffolding, with the city walls and gates visible in the background landscape. This narrative moment symbolizes Barbara's defiance of her father's orders to build only two windows; her insistence on a third opening serves as an architectural metaphor for the Holy Trinity.
The inclusion of physical tools and the active engagement of the saint with the laborers emphasize her agency and spiritual conviction within the religious narrative.
Technique & Style
Created around 1500, this religious painting is executed in oil paint on a wooden panel support. The work depicts Saint Barbara overseeing the addition of a third window to her tower, a scene populated by stonemasons, bricklayers, and scaffolding against a backdrop of city walls and a landscape. The composition integrates architectural elements with figures engaged in construction, utilizing the oil medium to render the details of physical tools and the textures of the building materials.
History & Provenance
The painting St. Barbara Directing the Construction of a Third Window in Her Tower was created in 1500 by the Master of Affligem, also known as Jacob van Laethem. Executed in oil paint on panel, the work depicts the saint overseeing the construction of a tower window while surrounded by stonemasons and bricklayers. The piece is currently held in the collection of the Walters Art Museum.
While the specific commission details and original ownership chain prior to its arrival at the museum are not detailed in the available records, the work is firmly dated to the turn of the sixteenth century and attributed to the Master of Affligem based on stylistic and historical analysis.
Context
The painting St. Barbara Directing the Construction of a Third Window in Her Tower, attributed to the Master of Affligem and dated to 1500, exemplifies early sixteenth-century Netherlandish religious art. Its depiction of Saint Barbara overseeing the building of a third window within a tower draws on hagiographic narratives and architectural symbolism common in devotional works of the period. The composition features a saint directing stonemasons and bricklayers amid detailed city walls and a gate, merging narrative clarity with devotional gesture.
Held in the Walters Art Museum, the work reflects the devotional patronage and technical innovation of northern European panel painting circa 1500. Scholarship on the piece emphasizes its role within the Master of Affligem’s oeuvre and the broader stylistic trends of early Netherlandish art, situating it alongside related works such as those in the Joseph Sequence attributed to Jacob van Laethem.
Overview
Created around 1500, this oil painting is attributed to the anonymous Master of Affligem, an artist active in Brussels during the late fifteenth century. Executed in the Southern Netherlandish tradition, the work measures roughly a modest panel size and is now part of the Walters Art Museum’s collection. It illustrates a narrative episode from the legend of Saint Barbara, focusing on the construction of a new window in her tower.
Artist & collection
Artist
The Master of Affligem or Master of the Joseph Sequence (working c. 1470–1500) was an accomplished painter of the South Netherlandish school, apparently working in Brussels, whose name is not known, but whose hand can…
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