Epitaph of a Canon
by GERHAERT VAN LEYDEN, Nicolaus, Limestone, height 136 cm
On the epitaph, an elderly man, one of the Cathedral’s canons, pleads, ‘Pray for us with pious invocation, O Virgin Mary.’ His petition is inscribed on the banderole that playfully wraps around the Gothic tracery above. Mary, crowned as Queen of Heaven, appears by his side. The pairs presence is stressed as their bodies extend well beyond the edges of the architectural frame. Gerhaert’s naturalism, rooted in Van der Weyden’s art, transforms cold stone into a believable encounter of great immediacy.