Merode Altarpiece (c1428). The Mérode Altarpiece 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 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, and the Holy Spirit represented by the rays of light coming falling from the left hand window. The central panel was completed after 1422, likely between 1425 and 1428, 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 attribution of the New York triptych has been the subject of wide scholarly debate. It seems to have been completed the same year as the Ghent Altarpiece, in 1432, making the painter a contemporary of Jan van Eyck. It is usually accepted as belonging to a group of paintings associated with the Master of Flémalle, assumed to be Robert Campin. For a time it was attributed to Campin's apprentice Rogier van der Weyden based on the realistic style that would become van der Weyden's hallmark. There is another version of the Annunciation panel in Brussels, slightly earlier but damaged, which may represent the original version by Campin. Technical examination of the wood panels suggest that the triptych was completed by a number of hands. The wood of the central panel is different and earlier to that of the wings, while the hinging further suggest that the central panel was not intended as part of a triptych. The central panel is likely a copy of an earlier composition by Campin, while the wings were probably a later commission from the donor to attach to the main panel to form a small private devotional altarpiece. Areas of the panels have been reworked; both the female doner and bearded man on the left wing were painted over landscape, while the window behind the Virgin was originally painted in gold. Campbell is not convinced by the association with Flemalle group, and thus Robert Campin. He describes the Mérode as incoherent in design, lacking Campin's usual trait of spatial continuity, as found in the Seilern Triptych. The open sky as seen through the central panel windows is incongruous in point of view with the street scene in the donor panel. Campbell highlights poor command of perspective in the donor panel, and observes that it is unfortunate that a line of one of the mortar courses in the garden wall disappear into the donor's mouth. Campbell describes the wing panels as pedestrian, and the product of lesser hands. He gives prominence to the Brussels panel, which he cautiously attributes to the Master of Flémalle. The triptych is relatively small, indicating that it was commissioned for private, domestic use; the central panel measures 64 × 63 cm and each wing is 65 × 27 cm. The panels share a very steep perspective, in which the viewer seems to be looking down on the figures from an elevated point of view. In other respects the perspective is underdeveloped; neither the Virgin nor Gabriel seem to rest on solid ground, while the female donor appears to hover and appears to be barely able to fit within the space she is positioned in. The panels are in good condition, with little over-paint, glossing, dirt layers, or paint losses. They are almost entirely in oil, and establish many of the inventions that were to make the technique so successful and adaptable over the following centuries. The serenity of the works is achieved, in part, through the dominance of pale, opaque white, red, and blue hues. The size of the panels and the at times minute attention to detail are similar to the focus of contemporary miniatures, of the kind seem in the two illuminated manuscripts in the central panel. The panel is one of the earliest representations of the Annunciation to Mary in a contemporary Northern European interior, which appears to be a dining room.